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Book Mja 



PRESENTED BY 



PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 



PLAIN TALK 



ABOUT 

FLOEIDA, 



FOR 



HOMES AND INVESTMENTS. 



BY 



J. A. MACDONALD, 

UNITED STATES SURVEYOR, EUSTIS, ORANGE CO., FLORIDA. 



PART I. 



J. A. MACDONALD, PRINTER, 
iSustis, jFla. 

1883. 



WARNING. 



LORIDA is visited every year by tens of thousands of people, nine- 

"^ tenths of whom come for recreation, change of chmate, or rest, 
while many hundreds of people are connected with mercantile pur- 
suits, transportation or hotels. These people rarely do more than- spend 
a few days or weeks at the principal watering places, or on the routes of 
travel. They know nothing about Florida when they leave it. Most of 
them are delighted with the climate and society in winter ; a few disgusted 
with everything else ; some go year after year, but at last make a home 
here. Now and then you will find a conceited fellow who affects to de- 
spise Florida and ridicules it ; but you will always find, if you investigate, 
that those who know most about Florida like it best. 

Many have failed in Florida, but always on account of their own mis- 
management. These failures are a standing "danger" signal for those 
who come now. In these pages you will find names of many who have 
succeeded. Do as they did, and there is no danger of failure. 

Above all things, avoid discussion of the subject with these smart, im- 
pertinent fellows, who can tell you all about it, and know so many in- 
stances of disaster. They are invariably either inventing or retailing 
falsehoods. Nine out of ten of them would like to own an orange grove, 
but have not sufficient manhood to undertake it, and wait for it, and do 
not want anybody else to do what they dare not. The wise men and the 
wealthy men of our nation are rapidly turning their attention to it. A 
thousand promment Northern capitalists have winter homes and orange 
groves in our State. Ten thousand intelligent, industrious Northern men 
of small means are comfortably situated on permanent homes, and over 
three hundred thousand people live easily by agriculture here, while it is 
attracting more attention than any other part of our Union. 

Hundreds of sensible men are preparing homes there through agents ; 
some of the finest properties in our State are made for people who rarely 
see them (see Gen. O. E. Babcock's, Sanford's, Judge Markham's and 
Debary's groves, wealthy men, and the Jackson grove, Schultz grove or 
Fahnestock grove at Eustis, made by men of moderate means or poor 
men, all done through agents). 

P'ollow in the tracks of men who have succeeded, and do as they did, 
and any one can get a foothold in Florida. The country is full of gassy, 
brassy, impertinent, addle-headed detractors of Florida ; fellows who made 
a trip up the St. John's, or over the railroads, and never saw a spot of 
ground ten feet above water ; people who know no more about our State 
than a traveller who goes up the Hudson at night knows about the State 
of New York. Florida is the largest State east of the Mississippi River, 
and it is not seen in a week, nor is it fairly tested in a year. 

When you hear a man abusing Florida, you can set him down as either 
ignorant of the subject, or a fraud ; many who live on our trade or trans- 
portation business do this. Let us know their names, and we can tell you 
how much they can be relied upon. We are preparing a list of these fel- 
lows, and a list of the sensible men who know Florida and believe in it. 



/ 









3^/7 



Plain Talk About Florida 



APOLOGY. 



<i.^^|| O many questions are asked, that in order to save an immense 
''^^^ amount of writing to my correspondents, a 



=^'. 



and talking to my cus- 
tomers who call upon me, I have decided to embody such por- 
tions of my own experience as can be written from the imperfect 

^'^-^'^ data at hand, and from memory, in a book for general circulation.. 
The reader will please pardon any seeming egotism displayed ; he will find 
the facts set out true, or if not exact, they are at least not exaggerated or 
distorted, with a view to deceive. 

In giving the names and post office of the persons inentioned, I aim to 
put into the hands of all who desire to pursue the inquiry, the means of 
ascertaining the exact truth and value of the statements made, by reaching^ 
the persons and properties mentioned. 

Time would not permit me to ask the privilege of using the names of 
many of my clients in this matter, but being personally well acquainted 
with most of them, I have taken this liberty, believing that there are none 
who would refuse to allow their names used in a cause so good as this. 

To all my clients I would beg leave to say, that my purpose is to give 
the most convincing testimony as to what has been done, and what can be 
doni in Florida, by rich or poor, who come to our State with willing hands,, 
a frugal mind, and an honest purpose. 

The fortunes made by my customers are of their own making ; they owe 
me nothing ; they paid me all I asked for my lands, or my advice, and I do- 
not wish anyone to think that I lay any claim against them, or that they 
are under any obligations to me. On the contrary, I am indebted to my 
friends for my own prosperity, as their confidence in my judgment has- 
built up my business, and nothing shall ever be left undone by me that 
may be necessary to hold the confidence and respect of my settlers; to them 
I owe everything. 

If any are offended because I publish their affairs to the world, they may 
rest assured that I am not actuated by any sinister motive, and cannot con- 
ceive how any honest man should be loth to have his experience given for 
the benefit of good men who are anxious to come to our State, but are de- 
terred by the foolish misrepresentation of weak-minded or designing per- 
sons who know nothing of the subject. 

It is my aim in this publication, not only to show the reader that people. 






rich or poor, have succeeded, and can succeed in Florida, and that there is 
no good reason why anyone who comes properly advised should fail, except 
for reasons peculiarly his own, and not blamable on Florida, but also to 
show that persons advised by me have invariably done well. 

The object then is twofold, first, to induce people to invest in South 
Florida, and make homes amongst us. earn fortunes for themselves, and 
enhance the value of our property, and the pleasures of living here, by the 
increase of population and wealth, and the improvement of society ; and 
secondly, to increase my own business and convince my correspondents 
that it is safest to act on the judgment of one who has had along and suc- 
cessful career in making homes and investments for others, as well as for 
himself. 

As this will be simply a part of the history of my own land transactions 
ill Florida, it may be well to begin at the beginning and tell who I am, 
where I came from, and where 1 lived before going South ; this will help 
answer the oft-repeated query, " can a Northern man live in Florida ? " 

NATIONALITY. 

I am a native of Canada, where my grandfathers settled in 1828; after 
20 years in the British army, in India, South Africa, South America, 
Ceylon, and the Continental wars, including Waterloo ; they were both born 
in a country nearly as cold and inhospitable as Norway. Canada was a 
singular choice, having lived in mild climates the best part of their lives. 
Several years of my boyhood were spent in the City of Rochester, N. Y., 
and at the age of fourteen my parents returned to Canada, where they 
owned a tract of wild land ; this I helped to clear for a farm, but spent 
much of my time in the wild, uninhabited north woods, and at sixteen de- 
cided to become a surveyor. I mastered sufficient of the rudiments to en- 
able me to locate the lands and extend the lines over the unsurveyed town- 
ships, by protracting the lines of those already surveyed, and so nearly 
correct that when surveyed officially, it did not vary enough to be noticed ; 
this was done with no other instrument than what I made myself, and a 
mere boy, I located dozens of families on homes in advance of the Gov- 
ernment surveys. Many of the old settlers in the townships of Digby 
and Dalton remember how the ingenuity of a boy enabled them to secure 
their homes. 

I then followed the " Crown land survey " for three winters, till I found 
that my knowledge would be enough to start me on my own account in a 
new country, and I naturally looked to the " Great West," of which I had 
read and heard so much. 

Twenty, robust, active, expert as a woodsman, at home in bark canoe, or 
on snow shoes, I was not long in finding employment at the work most 
congenial to my taste. Hon. Isaac Stephenson, now in Congress from the 
ninth Wisconsin District, selected me as explorer and surveyor for the 
Lumber Company of Marinette, Wisconsin, and for three years most of my 



P. 






5 

time was spent in exploring the woods of Northern Wisconsin and North- 
ern Michigan, locating State and Government lands. My wages were ten 
dollars per day and expenses. My employers bought what I recommended, 
and no fault has been found to this day. In the woods, by the camp fire, 
I studied German and French, and acquired sufficient of these languages 
to settle many families of these nationalities on homes in the West — 
people who could not speak English. 

AN INVALID. 

Hard work and exposure in those cold latitudes caused me to become 
alarmed at the condition of my lungs, and I decided to seek a milder climate ; 
so in the summer of 1866, my attention was directed to Missouri, and 
also to Florida. In the agricultural report, a letter by L. D. Stickney, of 
St. Augustine (the best ever written on the subject), inclined me to prefer 
Florida, but I went to Missouri, where the climate was even more disagree- 
able than Wisconsin, and gave me a severe attack of bronchitis ; returning 
in the winter of '65 and '67, I read a paragraph in the New York Tribune 
written by Horace Greeley, advising consumptives to go to Florida, and this 
decided my course. 

Leaving home with a fixed purpose to go South until I reached a land 
where snow was never seen, or below the " snow line," my journey ended 
in Orange County, Florida. 

This sketch of my career is given to show my friends that my early life 
was spent in pursuits well calculated to prepare me for practical work in 
exploring, surveying and mapping Florida, and I found myself in an en- 
tirely undeveloped land, a country as well adapted to my tastes as I was 
to understand and develop its resources. 

A DISCOVERY. 

. On landing at Old Fort Mellon, on the south shore of the Lake Munro, 
the only sign of civilization was the small store building of Doyle & 
Brantly, who had a short time before commenced a mercantile business. 
They were southern men, and had no conception of the possibilities I had 
in view. They had been satisfied with the old system of slavery ; now that 
it was destroyed, looked forward to the future with the most gloomy fore- 
bodings. A walk of less then two miles brought me to the celebrated 
Speer Orange grove, then twenty-five years old. The public road runs 
through the groves, and the trees were loaded with fruit and nearly all in 
bloom. I had seen many new and interesting things on my journey, but 
this capped the climax. My Compagnon de voyage, a Mr. Husband of 
Philadelphia, was thrown into ecstasies, and the sight of an orange grove 
in all its glory of golden fruit and snowy blossoms, filling the air with its 
delightful aroma and delicate perfume, captivated me completely and 
shaped my plans through life. 

I knew that hundreds of thousands in America would be pleased as I 



was if they could only see these things, and forthwith set about devising 
means to let them know it. 

Travellers and geographers had all pictured Florida as a land of swamps 
and alligators, of Indians and pestilential marshes, and I knew that ninety- 
nine hundredths of the people of the United States and Canada knew as 
little, or less about what Florida really was, than I did myself before com- 
ing to see. 

POOR PEOPLE. 

My worldly possessions did not amount to over a thousand dollars, in 
lands in Wisconsin. My wife and baby were two thousand miles from me, 
and I had but a few dollars in money. Although I had expected to find a 
poor country to make money in, no one can now realize how poor Florida 
was at that time. In a tramp of a few miles we called at three habitations 
of the rudest kind, and found that not a mouthful of food could be pur- 
chased from any one of them, and that they had absolutely nothing to eat 
but Palmetto ; and when tired and hungry at night, we found shelter and 
a wholesome and palatable meal of sweet potatoes and stewed beef, at the 
house of a good old citizen, the late Daniel Hartly, near Fort Reed, we 
were grateful, indeed. 

DELIGHTED. 

Early next morning we were awakened by the popping of cow whips, 
the lowing of cattle, and the song of the cowboy. The soft, balmy air, 
the waving banana leaves, the strange and beautiful foliage and flowers, were 
so absorbingly interesting, that it seemed like a glorious dream, from which 
I feared I might awaken, and find myself amongst the snowladen and ice- 
bound forests of Wisconsin, whence I had escaped but two weeks before. 
Mr. Husband was at one time a carpenter, but had studied law, was 
admitted, and had married a grand-daughter of Robert Morris, of Rev- 
olutionary fame, and of course had taken upon himself very aristocratic 
notions. His object in coming to Florida was to establish himself and 
family on a princely orange plantation, realize a million a year, and expect- 
ed this for a small outlay and in an incredibly short space of time. Finding 
that my profession was surveying and that I was familiar with the public 
surveys, he cultivated my acquaintance, and notwithstanding the absurdity 
of his notions of "American nobility," founded upon the ancestry of his 
wife, he was a very agreeable gentleman. My former experience as a pio- 
neer on a farm in Canada and in the western wilds was very useful now, 
and we soon constructed a camp, in a few weeks, having first selected and 
surveyed our homesteads, we had a house built for him. My throat troubles 
soon disappeared under the healing influence of South Florida's climate, 
and I could do so much work with an scxe, and handle such heavy pieces 
of timber, that the natives to this day talk of the feats of strength and 
endurance performed by me during my first few years in the State. When 
the summer came I found no inconvenience from heat, and continued to 



work in the sun all day long, till at length I took an attack of mild inter- 
mittent fever ; a good native neighbor gave me a dose of calomel and a few 
doses of quinine, and in three days I was well again, and for five years 
afterwards I never was sick a day ; the short illness I had was due to my 
indiscretion in doing more than I had ever attempted to do before even in 
cold climates. 

During my first three years a living could not be made at my trade 
entirely, so the only thing left was to do any and every kind of work that 
would bring in a dollar. 

EXPLORING AND EXPERIMENTING. 

A considerable portion of my tirst year was spent in hard marches over 
South Florida, locating homesteads for the squatters. The United States 
government gave every head of a family 80 acres free, and I found that 
few of the people knew this, and many did not care to own the land they 
lived on, so surveying private lands was not a lucrative business. The 
people, with few exceptions, were very poor, and the prospects sometimes 
were gloomy, indeed. I knew that the country must eventually come into 
notice and attract immigration, but few of our northern people had any 
faith in either the people or the lands of the South. Westward, Ho ! was 
the cry, and if any one said a word in favor of Florida as a place to seek 
homes, they were hounded down by the paid and unscrupulous newspaper 
correspondents, who were in the interest of western land speculators and 
railroads. 

Having no money to advertise Florida, and not being able to travel and 
talk for it, my only resource was to write for northern papers whose editors 
were fair minded enough to publish my letters. In a short time after my 
-arrival, letters of inquiry came in such numbers that my mail amounted 
to more than that of all the other inhabitants of Orange Co. This was 
the entering wedge, and from this commenced, in 1867, the tide of immi- 
gration which has since swept over the entire county, and made it the 
banner county of the State. It took nearly two years to get the first few 
settlers. In twelve months from the day we arrived, my friend Hus- 
band had expended his last dollar, and a legacy then inherited by his wife 
coming to hand, he went back to Philadelphia; then I was the only 
northern settler since the war in Orange county. It looked blue, but I had 
come to stay. I had made some experiments and expended nearly my 
whole capital, but brought my family, and, like Cortez, burned my ships, 
so that going back was not to be thought of; I never would see snow 
again. My first homestead did not suit me after I had looked over the 
finer portions of the country, and several months hard work and money 
paid for labor was unavailable. In the mean time, we had bought a 
beautiful tract of hummock land on the south-east shore of the great 
Apopka lake, and cleared five acres, planted it in sugar cane, built a 
house of logs, and planted four hundred wild orange trees, when, to my 



great disappointment, we found that the seed cane, for which we paid one 
hundred dollars, was spoiled from exposure before it was sold to me, and 
would not grow. Lake Apopka is surrounded by a rich belt of land, and 
it is not a healthy place for a home on its banks, so my wife and child 
were taken sick with chills. A grove planted on new hummock is 
soon overgrown by weeds and vines if not continually cultivated. My 
trees required constant work. My money was all gone, and all my crops 
had failed on account of my own inexperience with the products of the 
country. 

DEPRESSED. 

Then came the trying period of my Florida pioneering. No one wanted 
my property, few needed my services, not a northern family in the 
country, but a benevolent old settler, E. S. Dann, came along by my house 
while we were seriously discussing the propriety of sending home for 
funds to go back, and advised me to leave that " sickly place " and go 
down where he lived. I told him we had heard before of the old saying 
out West, " It is healthy at my place, but fearful sickly down yonder," and 
paid no attention to him, believing that on the beautiful high ground where 
our house stood it must be " as healthy as anywhere in Florida." The 
next week we moved, however, and soon learned that there are spots in 
Florida where a summer residence will insure chills or fevers, while there 
are large areas where malarial diseases are unknown. But I am straying 
from my subject : all these questions of health and every other of interest 
to settlers or homeseekers will be fully discussed hereafter, and I will 
begin by saying that the first tract of land selected by me in Florida was 
my " homestead " of 80 acres. 

HOPEFUL. 

In three years from that time I sold it for $500.00 to Miles Tanner, who 
has resided on it ever since. It was an excellent location, having a large 
muck bed, which I drained and partly cleared. This land has produced 
enormous crops of different kinds ; two to four crops a year, for thirteen 
or fourteen years. The muck is leaf mould, several feet deep, of inex- 
haustible fertility, and valuable to apply to the higher lands as a fertilizer. 

Mr. Tanner was a poor man ; bought the property partly on tin>e, and 
in trade, went there with a large family, and to-day the farm is worth at 
least $10,000.00. If I had remained there and carried out my original 
plans, which could have been done with my own labor and resources, the 
place would be worth $100,000. The next selection was for J. L. Hus- 
band, and a few years ago it was bought for a few hundred dollars, per- 
haps three or four, and now it is worth as many thousands. 

The next location was my place on the shore of Lake Apopka, at what 
is now known as Lovel's Landing. I bought it from William Mills, in 
1867, at about $2.00 per acre, and sold it next year at about $5.00. It has 



steadily advanced, year after year, ever since. It is now worth $ioo.oo per 
acre, by the regular increase in value of the land, with no improvements. 

I purchased a claim from a colored man at what is now known as 
Apopka City, of high pine land, which I sold in 1868 for one hundred dol- 
lars (160 acres). Three years afterward, part of that tract sold at ten dol- 
lars per acre ; seven years after, part sold at twenty dollars per acre, and 
now that and adjoining land is selling at from fifty dollars per acre, 
upward. 

One of my objects in publishing this paper is to show, beyond possi- 
bility of contradiction, that the so called " boom " in Florida is not an ex- 
citement or evanescent thing of yesterday and to-day, which may collapse 
to-morrow, like many Dakota booms manufactured for the occasion, but 
that the great advance in values of wild lands in Florida has been steady 
and almost uniform, from year to year, ever since the date when northern 
people first had their attention turned to Orange County through my 
efforts, and that no property that was ever selected or purchased by me, 
for myself or for any other person, failed to prove profitable as an invest- 
ment. 

The business of selecting lands in Florida is and has been altogether 
different from the same calling in other countries ; and in peopling South 
Florida I was first called upon to find people who could be induced to set- 
tle or make investments in a country, and follow pursuits which they had 
never thought of, knew nothing about, and in which their own judgment 
or experience took no part, relying wholly on my judgment and promises 
as to what \vould be the general result. In other words, I not only had to 
select the location, but had to select the State and the business they were 
to follow for the remainder of their lives. 

In the West I was employed by men who knew what they wanted, and 
required my services only to find the timber soils or minerals they directed 
me to locate, and all they held me accountable for was correctness of my 
reports in letting them know what lands to buy. 

In Florida, I had to undertake to induce thousands of people to break 
up old associations, leave callings in which they had been brought up, and 
entirely alter the whole course of their lives, go to a climate different, en- 
gage in avocations of which they had not the remotest idea, and do this in 
the face of the most ignorant and obstinate opposition by people of the 
cold countries, who have, as a rule, no knowledge of mild climates, and no 
one can explain why, have conceived and nursed for ages the most ludic- 
rous notions of noxious insects, venomous reptiles, cavernous mouthed 
crocodiles, savages, fevers, plagues and burning suns, perhaps based on 
the absurd stories of travellers, who delight to magnify their own adven- 
tures in warm climates, and publish exciting narratives without any regard 
to truth. 

All this had to be contended with in my early correspondence, and how 
hopeless it would seem at times when, after a year of careful correspond- 



ence with a good family, whom I supposed were all ready to come, some 
aimless simpleton would publish a tale of land sinks, depredations by alli- 
gators, or other foolish stories, and cause me to write a dozen rnore four 
page letters to meet and upset the new objections of my correspondents. 

But I digress again, and my readers will bear with me when I get away 
from my subject, for these reminiscences bring up all my early struggles, 
so that I could talk a month and not say all that I would like to tell on a 
subject so dear to me. 

How my hopes were buoyed up, in 1868, when Col. B. F. Whitner, 
an old North Florida planter, decided to leave North Florida, where the 
sub-tropical fruits could not be grown successfully, and come down to 
Orange County to plant a large orange grove. He had secured a " Yankee " 
to furnish capital and he the experience, and to divide equally. He 
bought the property on which I slept the first night in Orange County, 
at about S650 (no acres), a beautiful spot, and commenced work. The 
place is now one of the finest in Florida. A part of the grove sold sorne 
five or six years ago for a large sum, nearly twenty thousand dollars, and 
ihe whole grove laid out and managed for several years by Col. Whitner, 
■now belongs to several owners, and could not all be bought for a hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

The land is pine, and classed as " third rate," not high enough to be all 
tillable without draining, and not near so good a location as could have 
been made by going a little further ; but the " Yankee " partner did not 
want to go away from transportation. If Col. Whitner had his choice, he 
preferred land twenty-five miles away, where he could accomplish twice 
as much in a given time, and where transportation came long before it was 
needed— land that is higher, more picturesque, and where there was little 
expense or laborious preparation needed, such as grubbing and ditching, 
and where the fruit trees would thrive mucii better. 

•^ A few years after Col. Whitner settled in Orange County, he planted 
another grove south of Lake Jcssup, on high hummock, an exceptionally 
fine tract of this class of land, and there his heirs now have a most magni- 
ficent property, which, if it has continued to thrive as when I saw it last, 
must now be worth at least fifty thousand dollars, and paying from five 
to ten thousand dollars per annum in fruit. This is what one old gentle- 
man, who was composed of good material, did for his family during the 
latter years of a long and useful life. 

I could enumerate a hundred such cases as this, where a man or woman 
of means took into partnership a good, reliable, indu'strious man, giving 
him half, and furnishing all the money needed to buy the land, clear, 
plant, etc., and hire labor, as well as all living expenses, and, in fact, re- 
<\{i\re nothing of the resident partner but his skill and such labor as he 
could perform, and both grew rich out of the transaction. But the world 
no longer doubts the success of fruit culture in Florida, when properly lo- 
cated far enough South ; and what I desire to impress upon your minds is 
the advisability of investment. 



I might mention hundreds of locations made by me up to 1869, but dur- 
ing that year the first real stream of immigration commenced to set in — a 
very attenuated stream, and branching out into only a few localities. At 
this period it was asserted by most old settlers that orange groves could 
not be grown very profitably on any land but hummock, and that wild* 
orange groves budded were the ne plus ultra of orange lands ; but people 
had been experimenting, and many had decided before 1870 that high, 
poor, pine land, properly fertilized and planted in young seedling trees, 
was preferable, and then the era of settling the " pine land " for homes 
and groves began. 

FIRST CAPITALIST. 

In 1870 General Sanford purchased the " Levy Grant" (12,000 acres), 
on the south shore of Lake Munro. This was our first "capitalist," and 
from that day commenced our growth. He was a great boon to us, and 
he has done more for Florida than any other man living. I planned and 
named the town of Sanford, expended $1,000 in building the first road to 
it, was Gen'l Sanford's agent, and sold the first lots for him. A short 
time before he bought, a friend and myself bought 80 acres of the best land 
on the tract at $10 per acre. This was the first unimproved land, to my 
knowledge, that had ever been sold in Orange County at so high a price, 
and people thought it preposterous. After Sanford's purchase, I bought 
from him 80 acres at $25, and this was considered a very wild transaction, 
indeed, on my part. In less than eighteen months I sold part of the latter 
purchase to Seth French, late commissioner of emigration, at $100 per acre. 
In four years I refused $200 per acre for part of what I had bought at ten, 
and now, ten years afterward, I have no doubt it is worth $500 per acre. 
This is all for unimproved land. And now I desire to call attention to the 
fact that this great advance in price and ready sale was ten and twelve 
years ago, and there has been a steady advance down to the present day, 
because when I write to one of my correspondents that land has advanced 
from $10 per acre three years ago to $200 now, they are inclined to look 
upon this great advance as something that has never happened before and 
that may never happen again ; but I will prove that no good location in 
South Florida has failed to increase in value just in proportion to the num- 
ber of good northern people who settle there ; and it is a certainty that can 
be relied upon, that one can take any mile square of high land, that is sur- 
rounded by available land for some distance, at Government price, place 
one hundred families of the class coming to our State upon it, and the land 
is worth an average of $100 per acre ; and if there is something specially 
picturesque, such as beautiful lakes or open attractive country, much of 
the land will be worth double or treble that price. And it is not necessary 
to have transportation to the land, or even within a day's drive of it, as we 
can show that at many places, such as Bartow and Fort Meade, 40 or 50 
miles from transportation, land has sold as high as $100 per acre, and only 
a couple of dozen families within miles of either place, while I am buying 



as good land in the same county every day at $1.25 per acre, land that will 
sell for just as much as at Bartow when a few families settle near it. 

At Maitland, C. C. Beasley took a homestead of Government land ten 
years ago, and five years ago part of it sold at $ioo per acre. 

A short time before Mr. Beasley took this homestead, I selected it and 
the one adjoining for Major Randolph, of New Orleans, but he did not con- 
sider it of much importance, and deferred entering the land till it was taken 
by Mr. Beasley, and still Mr. Randolph did not express any regrets as the 
place was simply a high " Black Jack and Pine " location like a thousand 
others lying vacant at the time and hundreds that are still vacant, or can be 
had at a nominal price, and will be equally valuable when the inevitable 
settlement of South Florida moves on over them. 

A short time after this Maitland homestead was taken, I published a map 
which attracted some attention, and a Mr. Galbraith, of New Haven, in 
making a tour of our State, met me. Fmding that I was familiar with 
nearly all parts of Florida he was interested in my conversation, and I in- 
duced him to take a trip over some of the wild Lands in the interior of the 
county. The wealthy people who visited Florida in those days merely 
made the tour of the St. John's River, and went back knowing nothing what- 
ever of the beautiful interior portions, and I saw that a break must be made 
so as to attract them inland, where they supposed it was all a swamp. Mr. 
Galbraith was delighted, and introduced me to Geo. H. Hudson, who was 
spending a season at Green Cove Springs, and I unfolded to him the 
beauties of Orange County so well that he agreed to return next season 
and purchase land for a home. He came and met me in Jacksonville, but it 
was impracticable for me to go with him to show him the country ; so he 
went up to Orange County and met a land agent, who took him to 
Maitland, where then nearly all the land was vacant ; he bought a claim. 
His friend John Bigelow followed, and from this started the Maitland 
" boom," and hence the beautiful property known as the Bigelow Place. 

This attracted others, and thus a mere chance shot, two hundred miles 
from home, started the nucleus of one of the thriving places ; a day's 
journey from transportation. But this was not all that my work away 
from home did for Maitland. Some time in 1870, I was boarding at Mrs. 
Atkins' house, in Jacksonville, Florida, and in a conversation, dwelling on 
the healing properties of South Florida's climate, I attracted the attention 
of a lady. Miss Cook, who was so much pleased with my description, that 
she decided to take my advice and induce her nephew, who was afflicted 
with asthma, to come to Florida ; he was then a paymaster's clerk on a 
sloop of war in Rio Janeiro. I located a homestead for her, and her purpose 
was to have this nephew come, occupy it, and make an orange grove. The 
nephew came, but found he could buy from a native a place partly im- 
proved, and he sold the first homestead claim and settled on the improved 
place near Maitland. I afterward surveyed a homestead situated on the 
shore of Lake Maitland for a friend of this young man, on which they 



13 

made a joint grove, and this commencement, made away out in the pine 
woods of Orange County twelve years ago, by an invalid young man who 
never before had performed a day's physical labor, and whose available 
means were only a few hundred dollars, has done more for the Maitland 
region, perhaps, than that of any other man ; this is E. S. Kedney, Esq., 
whose indefatigable industry, and whose intelligent use of limited resources, 
has placed him among the most successful men of our State. His practical 
experience has been given in his letters. They have been read by thousands, 
and have done much for the cause of immigration. He is a gentleman of 
considerable scientific attainments, and has made several valuable orange 
groves for himself, and as agent for others, and is worth at least 
$75,000. 

" BOOM " VISIBLE. 

About these days, 1870, the Florida boom had assumed proportions, and, 
of course, my time was occupied. No day passed that I did not settle a 
family on a home, and I was making at least ten thousand dollars per 
annum. 

The Florida Improvement Company was organized in New York, and I 
was appointed their confidential agent to select 1,000,000 acres of State 
lands. A contract was made with the Board of Internal Improvement at 
ten cents per acre, to be paid for in the coupon bonds of the State, issued 
before the war. The Company was bound to take all the lands in any 
quarter township if they took any in the township, and, in fact, it was a 
very stupid bargain on the part of the Company. As a practical land man, 
who did not want worthless land at any price, I would much prefer to pay 
$1.25 per acre, and take any forty acre lot I wanted. But notwithstanding 
that the State really had the best of the bargain, as the Company was 
hedged in with a condition to put a family on every 32Q acre tract, a 
Mr. Vose, a large bondholder against the State, procured a decree in the 
United States Court, setting aside the contract, and an order against the 
Company to reconvey to the State. 

The Company had, in the meantime, expended about $100,000 in adver- 
tising and sending immigrants, and had paid me $2,500 in cash (and notes 
afterward paid), for over $4,000 for my selections. I then urged upon the 
Company the propriety of paying the regular price for the land, secur- 
ing an unconditional deed, and selecting about 100,000 acres of the best and 
colonizing it. This they would not do, and they lost all. Had they 
taken my advice I had selected all the Internal Improvement lands 
in Polk, Sumter, Orange, Volusia, and choice tracts of State land in 
all of these and other counties. This property to-day, without any 
efforts on their part, would be worth at least $4,000,000. It would em- 
brace the fine locations on the lakes around Orlando, all the present site 
of Orange City, and the Big Deadening in the Pease Creek Valley, and 
many other fine tracts now worth from $10 to $500 per acre. These 
lands were afterward entered by different parties, and have been steadily in- 



u 

creasing in value year by year ever since. Some of this land sold then at 
$1.25, in a year sold at $5.00, in three years at $10.00 ; in five years at $20 ; 
and now it is selling at the prices mentioned above, the price depending on 
beauty of location and the number of people in a given radius. Making 
money now plentifully for a young man, I spared no expense in securing 
settlers or attracting attention to Orange County, and although my own 
individual interests were somewhat neglected, I travelled everywhere 
through our countrj^ and brought a stream of people to South Florida. 
There were land agents enough to offer property for sale when they came, 
but it was my mission to bring the people. 

The advertising done by the Company was very beneficial, as it was the 
first attempt at anything like Western land business ever known in Florida, 
and it attracted thousands ; but, like all such speculative enterprises, it was 
managed by men who knew nothing about Florida, and exaggeration and 
misrepresentation crept into all their publications, and I was permitted 
to do nothing except select the land, and like the present Diston and 
Okeechobee land schemes, hundreds went home disgusted, because they 
found nothing as represented. 

My belief has always been that Florida is good enough as it really is, 
without claiming any more for it than can be verified. 

WORK AWAY FROM HOME. 

I was on the steamer going down the St. John's, on my way north in 
1870, when I met a gentleman and lady from Steubenville, Ohio, who had 
been to Orange County, having read some favorable accounts of it, but 
they were going back dissatisfied, because they had failed to find what 
they wanted. They had met one of the land agents who always spring up 
when activity in settlement of a new countr)' begins, and he had attempted 
to sell. them a small and really valueless place for the snug sum of $6,000. 
This chevalier de industrie told them that there was no government land 
worth having, and that there was no use in going farther, as all the valu- 
able land was in private hands, and of course they were driven out of 
Florida. Everybody they met wanted to sell, and all asked such prepos- 
terously high prices, or had such poor property, that these people, like 
many others, had decided to return home. I got into conversation with 
them and satisfied them that they had been basely deceived, and that I 
could ffnd a spot beautiful and fertile, just what they wanted, where they 
and their friends could find all the land they needed, incomparably finer 
than any they had seen, and on which they could settle as free homesteads. 

It was the policy of all " land sharks " in those days, as it is now, to 
misrepresent ; and if you want to know the ear mark of a land shark so you 
cannot be mistaken, ask him if there is not cheap, unimproved land or 
government land to be had. He will tell you no, nine times out of ten, 
and try to make you believe the land he has to sell is the only land worth 
having. My policy as a surveyor and explorer has always been to attract 



15 

attention to cheap lands and give my clients the full benefit of any rise in 
value that can come. 

ASSUMING THE RESPONSIBILITY. 

This system of land business requires some hard worK. First, to ex- 
amine the lands, and then to contend against the whole combined private 
land interests of those who wanted to sell. In other words, I have never 
been a land agent at all till within the last two or three years, having never 
before sold half a dozen places on commission. My business has been to 
give advice to the new comer, home seeker or investor, and get pay for 
that service, and when the Government land is all taken, as it soon will be, 
it is still my purpose to continue selecting for my clients the best and 
cheapest lands to be had from private owners. The experience of all my 
clients who acted on my advice has been, that they could learn more from 
me in ten minutes about where it was best to settle, than they could learn 
by ma.iy months of travel through Florida. 

SHARKS. 

No stranger in our State can depend on his own judgment, and it cer- 
tainly is not well to depend on the honesty of any of the newly fledged land 
agents, who have done nothing to show that their judgment is worth a 
button, only as they try to steal around in my tracks and pick up the fruit 
that I have shaken from the tree. Many of my correspondents, who, after 
writing to me for years, at last decide to come, on the way are picked up 
by these sharks and made to pay dearly for their whistle. It is true, that 
after they have corresponded with me for a long time they have learned 
many things that make it less easy to swindle them now than it was for- 
merly, when Florida was new ; for example, they go far enough South ; as a 
rule, they avoid hummocks ; they are governed by my advice in most 
things, but have not the firmness to run the gauntlet of sharks and reach 
me, and if not induced to buy property of no value whatever, as many 
have done, they invariably pay more for what they do get, and do not get 
as good, as if they would come direct to me. 

No matter how good the property offered, or how plausible the story 
told, it is almost a duty to me, as well as certainly a duty to themselves, for 
my correspondents to come to me before they locate. All the property for 
sale in this region is offered to me as agent, at one time or another. I am 
familiar with it all ; know its advantages and disadvantages, and will with- 
out any hesitation tell one of my friends what it is worth, no matter who 
has it for sale ; I will not be influenced by any mercenary motives, but give 
an unbiased judgment, and advise my friends for their own best interests. 
One of my correspondents could have saved $2,000 a few days ago, had he 
come straight to me before he bought. He got a fine place, but he paid 
more than the market price ; although a large percentage of my own cor- 
respondents come through to me before they locate, still, every week I can 



l6 

hear of those who drop out on the way, and invariably they regret it. I am 
not so annoyed when they get good property, because all such property 
will in time redeem them, no matter if they do pay too much at first, as 
there is no case known to me where a tract of high pine land in South 
Florida, in a healthy, picturesque locality, and where there is plenty more 
of the same kind, ever sold at a loss, no matter how high the price paid at 
first, provided subsequent expenditures on the property were judiciously 
made. 

But to come back to the lady of Steubenville, whom I brought back to 
Orange County, it was Mrs. Weiser, who has ever since resided at Island 
Lake, and has raised three groves of over one thousand trees each, all in 
bearing now, and has induced perhaps twenty or thirty other persons to 
become interested in Orange County, while they and their friends paid me 
about $3,000 for land and services. 

HOW FLORIDA BECAME KNOWN. 

A few days ago I was at Bartow, in Polk County, and called upon a real 
estate firm there, to talk land matters, and was not at all surprised to find 
that the senior member. Col. Snoddy, was one of my old correspondents, 
and said he would never have seen Florida had it not been for me. In 
travelling over our State I meet every day men who are glad to say that 
Macdonald induced them to come to Florida, but were induced to buy be- 
fore they reached me. I hope my friends will bear with me when I mention 
cases of this kind, as I naturally feel a species of pride in knowing that I have 
been instrumental in not only settling hundreds and thousands of people on 
homes in our State, but have been the means of causing so many to come 
who are satisfied and have done well, although they did not find me when 
they came, or give me any opportunity to earn anything from them, as the 
small fee made in selecting a home for a family is not oi near so much 
importance to me as to have the gratitude of those who took my advice 
and have reached success. 

I could go on and make a book of a thousand pages, telling you the 
different persons who came here through my exertions, and I do not know 
of one who has a fault to find, or will say that they would be better off if 
they never knew me. 

Up to 1875 my office was, wherever I could find material to work upon, 
that I could bring to Florida. I lectured in my native town, Lindsay, 
Canada, in 1870, and visited every town and city in the country nearly ; was 
continually writing letters, private and for publication ; and speaking of my 
native town, I can refer any of my clients to Hon. William McDonnell of 
Lindsay, Ontario. 

FIRST COLONY, 

Some time during 1871 I bought about 1,500 acres (through a friend, 
Moses J. Taylor, who advanced the money), from the State of Florida, 
and started the Sylvan Lake Settlement, where the celebrated groves of 



17 

Dr. Bishop, Mrs. Weiser, Balsly,. Weltslager, Davis, and others, amount- 
ing to over a thousand acres of orange trees, are now flourishing. A noted 
case is that of Dr. J. N. Bishop, who was a resident of Columbus, Missis- 
sippi, and who entered into a correspondence with me which lasted some 
time ; at length he came and met a shark who took him out in a buggy, to 
show him around, but he had come " to see Macdonald," and became dis- 
gusted with the twaddle of the shark, jumped out of the buggy, left the 
fellow in the woods, and found me. I had five or six others with me in a 
wagon, and we all went out together. Dr. Bishop bought inside of an 
hour, and being a gentleman of ample means he has developed seventy- 
five acres of as fine a grove as there is in Florida. The doctor would 
never have seen Orange County, were it not for me, and he has been in- 
strumental in bringing many others, amongst them our esteemed towns- 
man, Frank W. Savage, who has one of the most beautiful properties on the 
peerless Crooked Lake at Eustis, formerly of Geneva, N. Y. Mr. Savage 
claims that Florida has saved his life. He has brought to bear intelligent 
industry, and has proven that many things not successful heretofore can 
be relied upon in Florida ; for example, he has milk and butter for his 
family all the year round. So now I claim the honor of having brought 
these gentlemen to our county, and who will blame me for talking and 
scribbling to accomplish such results.' Some one must get good people 
to come down here amongst us ; good neighbors make our property valu- 
able, and make life here delightful, and so long as I can make any impres- 
sion by my arguments, it is my purpose to continue settling Florida. Now, 
speaking of Mr. Savage, here is another typical example of success. He 
took a free homestead that I selected for a young man in Steubenville, 
Ohio, seven years ago. Sold some of it four years ago at $io per acre ; 
sold some two years ago at $17 per acre, and now he could sell it all, not 
including the improvements, at $50 per acre. So the man who takes 
United States land at $1.25 per acre makes money on the rise when it 
reaches $5 or $10 per acre, and the man who buys well at $5 or $10 makes 
money as rapidly when he sells at $20 or $30 per acre, while the man who 
buys at the latter price makes as much and as easily when it advances to 
$50 or $100 per acre. The increase is steady, and sure, and is wholly 
governed by the increase of population on or near it. For instance, I in- 
duced Wm. M. Stone, of Toledo, Ohio, to enter a homestead on the shore 
on the Lake Dora, seven years ago. Four years afterwards I sold some 
of the land at thirty dollars per acre to Mr. Hutchinson, of E. Liverpool, 
Ohio, and a few months ago I bought twenty acres of the homestead for 
myself at $100 per acre. This land I expect to sell at five hundred dollars 
per acre, when my plans for a village are matured ; already a few small 
lots have been sold at that price. This is at Mount Dora. 

A notable instance amongst my clients is that of the Orange City Com- 
pany, and I will give you a sketch of how it all came about. 

Doctor Seth French and his brother Alex, travelled over the best por- 



tions of North Florida, visited the Harris & Bishop groves at Orange Lake, 
and many other well known groves, but had not purchased. I do not re- 
member that they had had any correspondence with me or any other per- 
son in Orange County, but they found themselves at Fort Reid, near my 
home, about ten years ago, I think in 1872. I was introduced to them ; 
they had heard so many arguments in favor of wild orange groves bud- 
ded, that they were, as they supposed, unalterably prepossessed in favor 
of wild hummock groves, and had decided to find one to commence on. 
In a talk of about two hours, I convinced them that they were deceived, 
and fortunately they were at a good point to argue the subject, for right 
before their eyes was the finest old grove in Florida, on pine land, and not 
far from there were several old hummock groves that were on their last 
legs. So I sold them the Humphry place on the ridge, near Sanford, now 
a grove of twelve hundred magnificent trees. They were about to leave 
Orange County when they found me, and certainly would have done so, 
had I not taken especial pains to correct an erroneous idea they had 
formed of our pine land county. 

I was not selling lands on commission and got none in this transaction, 
but I worked as I had for years to get people started aright, and to build 
up South Florida, knowing that my reward would come. 

ORIGIN OF ORANGE CITY. 

The French Bros, were the forerunners of a number of other Wisconsin 
men from their own and adjoining towns, and about two years afterwards 
I organized, on a few hours notice, a company who bought 5,000 acres of 
State land in Volusia County, for which I refer you to the letter of John 
E. Stillman, published in this paper. 

The Orange City Company was a grand success, and every one of the 
nine original shares paid at least twenty dollars to each dollar invested. I 
sold my share for an advance of $500 next day after organization, being 
good pay for one day's work. About these times I was doing almost the 
entire land business of the county, and in homestead cases all over the 
State ; of course my fees brought me a good income, but I was continually 
on the wing, either through Florida, or in other States, working for our 
county. 

OPENING UP WEST ORANGE. 

I will now come down to the seasons of 1875 and 1876. In September 
of '75, I found that a host of sharks had sprung up in Jacksonville, who 
were heading off my correspondents, and either driving them back dis- 
gusted, or selling them property in North Florida wholly unsuited to the 
semi-tropical fruits, and not far enough South to relieve the complaints 
which drove many of my correspondents away from homes at the North, 
for in those days I hardly ever advised any to tear up old associations and 
come to Florida, except those whose health and lives were jeopardized by 



19 

a further residence in cold latitudes ; so in order to as far as possible, coun- 
teract the evil influence in North Florida, it became necessary to " beard 
the lion in his den," and I opened an office on Bay Street, Jacksonville. 
There was at that time a large body of beautiful pine land vacant in 
West Orange, remote from transportation, and altogether uninhabited ex- 
cept by a few natives, or settlers from the cotton States, who had no con- 
ception of what could be done by an influx of Yankees. During that win- 
ter I located not less than two hundred families in South Florida, a major- 
ity of them in Orange County ; nearly all of them allowed me to select for 
them without going to see the land till after the purchase or entry was 
made. I will mention a few of these people ; this will be sufficient to prove 
the truth of what I say, as all the others can be reached through those 
mentioned. One case quite remarkable is that of Wellington Bramhall, 
of Seneca Lake. He had travelled over Florida the preceding season, 
liked the climate, but could not find what he wanted. He heard of me on 
his return, came into my office, and told me to locate him to the best ad- 
vantage. I selected a home for him, sent him to it, and anyone who will 
visit the Seneca settlement now can see how sound was my judgment, and 
that it was wisdom on his part to leave his location entirely to me. Mr. 
Bramhall's land, unimproved, is now worth from $30 to $50 per acre. 

A. S. Pendry, of Rochester, N. Y., strayed into my office after looking 
around considerably, and not finding anything to suit his means, explained 
what he wanted : a place where he could have a steamboat wharf, a 
small store, and a boarding house. I had been reserving the homestead 
where the village of Eustis is now situated for some one who would start 
a boarding house or hotel, as there was no place suitable for a party of 
home seekers to stop in the whole region, so I entered this choice home- 
stead for Mr. Pendry. Subsequently he induced C. A. Pratt, of Albion, N. 
Y., to go into partnership with him and build a rough house ; this was the 
only " Hotel " in all West Orange for four years. Pendry soon sold some 
of his land at $10 per acre ; intwo years he sold a few acres to Hon. Henry 
Glidden, of Albion, N. Y., at $25 per acre, and now he is well to do, worth 
at least $25,000 from the rise in value of his land, and his orange grove is 
worth $10,000 in addition. It certainly was a lucky stroke for him when 
he depended on me to select for him. 
I About the same time two enterprising young gentlemen from Rome, 
Ga., but natives of Western New York, called at my office. They had 
come to Florida with their effects. Finding the expense of travelling quite 
heavy, and being anxious to locate without unnecessary delay, they decided 
to let me locate them, and take the consequences. I located them near the 
present site ot Eustis. They engaged in a general country store business 
at once, and although it was miles to the nearest settler when they located, 
they soon had a good business, they supported their families well, and 
have each accumulated over $30,000 ; the land I located for them is worth 
from $25 to $50 now, and is selling readily at those figures. This was 



20 

Smith & Clifford, who are now the best merchants in our county, doing a 
large and increasing business. 

Some time before I located the last mentioned gentlemen, I was on a 
journey to Tallahassee, to enter some land for our late deceased Senator 
Geo. C. Brantly (a selection I had made for him of 640 acres now belong- 
ing to Capt. St. Claire Abrams, on which there are a number of beautiful 
locations), and in the passenger coach I got into conversation with a gen- 
tleman and his son who were also on their way to Tallahassee, to look at 
the country. Some scoundrel in Jacksonville had advised them to go to 
Leon County to plant semi-tropical fruits. Of course, they found, on ar- 
riving there, that such things were not grown in that latitude, and that it 
was not in any respect the country they sought ; so they decided to leave 
the location to me entirely, and I selected two homesteads in West Orange ; 
these are the Woodward Brothers, and they, of course, would never have 
found their present homes had they not accidentally met me. In those days 
I had to be around and at work to find settlers for South Florida. Let me 
mention a few of the settlers of Orange County who would never have 
been there without my efforts away from home, and whose success makes 
me proud that I was the humble means of bringing them to our lovely 
South Florida. 

STARTING SANFORD. 

Geo. E. Sawyer, of Sanford, one of the most valuable men of the county, 
a commissioner under two administrations, and ever active and liberal with 
his time and money in the cause of emigration, and showing up our resources, 
has made about $20,000 with but a few hundred dollars start, and 
it would be hard to estimate the number of good men he has induced to stay 
amongst us. 

I located Mr. J. O. Taber on Sanford's land and on a homestead near. 
He had means, but he is now worth over $30,000. He bought land at 
$10 ten years ago. Five years a.go he sold part of it, unimproved, at 
about $50, and now any of his land would be cheap at $100 per acre. 
Aaron Cloud came to Orange in 1877, an aged man, not through my 
influence, with no capital. He died last year, leaving property worth 
$100,000. But it will tire you if I go any further in this strain, so I will 
finish by saying that I can enumerate hundreds of men and women who 
came to South Florida through my solicitation, with little or no means and 
invalids, who are now worth from $5,000 to $50,000 in the rise in value of 
160 acre homesteads, or in the growth of orange trees planted with their 
own hands. A man may take a tract of land in the far West, and by a 
hard struggle for ten to twenty years, he will secure a nice farm, worth a 
few hundred dollars, while a few smart speculators or shrewd business 
men will accumulate handsome fortunes, and one in a thousand may 
stumble on great wealth. The chances are different in South Florida ; 
and there is not a single instance, where a man makes a good location and 
merely remains upon it for a few years, thftt the rise in value alone fails to 



21 

put him on his feet. Emory F. King, of Massachusetts, now of Eustis, Fla., 
came into my office in 1876. I selected 160 acres for him. It was sold a 
few months ago for $6,500, and a few weeks ago he applied to me to 
buy 1,200 acres of United States land for him, leaving it entirely to me to 
select. Mr. King had not improved his homestead to the extent of $300 in 
the six years. So the rise in value cleared him just $1,000 a year. This 
all came in a lump, and is doing well for a new country. While it requires 
capital to begin with, and good luck afterwards, to make a thousand dol- 
lars a year in the West, not one man out of a hundred of the new 
settlers does it. The reverse is the rule in South Florida, and not one man 
out of ten whom I have located has failed to make $1,000 a year, while 
many have doubled or trebled, and a few quadrupled these results. Any 
working man who has a sensible wife, or who has no wife, and is willing 
to go a few miles from neighbors at first, and wait for them to come, and 
will take 40 acres or more of government land, or will let me select ten 
acres for him of private land, at $10 to $25 per acre, and who will plant 
100 orange trees, a few lemons, limes, guavas, pineapples and other 
fruits, and will not go beyond his means, can be independent in seven 
years. But he must do as others have done who have succeeded, and I 
can tell him in ten minutes what to do, but it would take a whole day to 
tell what not to do. 

SOUTH FLORIDA R. R. 

Some time in 1871 I was foolish enough to rent a hotel, so I would have 
a place for my settlers to come to, and there were so many deadheads that 
I lost money on the hotel, but secured many good settlers for Orange 
County. I had in my employ a young man from Boston, M. R. Clark. 
He had a friend in Philadelphia, and he thought it would be a good thing 
to bring him to Orange County. I told him about the government land, 
and he wrote the friend, and also sent him a copy of my published map, 
on which I had laid down a proposed railroad from the town of Sanford, 
which I had just plotted on paper, to the county site. Mr. Clark's friend 
was E. W. Henck, Esq., who came, and saw, and was conquered ; took a 
homestead at what is now Longwood, and afterward actually went North 
without a dollar of capital and procured means to build the road which I 
had only the abihty to predict. So one of my settlers built the first rail- 
road in South Florida, and the best paying railroad in the State. I 
have the correspondence with Mr. Henck. How much good this one 
man has done toward the development of Orange County would be hard 
to estimate. My loss at hotel keeping was fully made up by this 
help to the county. In 1872 I met Col. Hiram Potter at Tallahassee, 
and induced him to enter 40 acres of government land, and afterwards 
coaxed him to let me have a grove planted for him. He did not 
place any value on the investment at first, but when he came and I 
showed him the county, he quit politics and official life and has resided 



22 

since 1876 in our county, and is worth $30,000. He has brought many 
friends to Orange County. 

During the years 1870, '71 and '72 I became acquainted with E. R. 
Trafford in Tallahassee, and I induced him to enter 40 acres of govern- 
ment land, which I selected for him in Orange County, and afterwards, 
by conversation and letter, I induced him to come to our county to engage 
in the business of land surveying, of which there was more than I could 
do. He came, and has gained a reputation as an engineer, surveyor, and 
latterly is general agent for the English company at Sanford. He has also 
made a nice little fortune in the rise in value of wild land. If my readers 
are not satisfied now that South Florida is a good country in which to get 
a start in the world, it would be useless for me to enumerate further in- 
stances of success. It is true we have no millionaires yet who made their 
fortunes here, and that is the best feature in it, because it almost insures 
success to the majority. 

■ When I look back and think over my work during the past 17 years, 
and see the hundreds I induced to come here, and see how well they have 
done, and then look over the dozens of intimate friends who would not 
come or even invest a few dollars, and who are now as poor, or may be 
poorer than years ago, and still struggling with cold, snow, mud, and 
disease, or who have died of complaints such as our climate would certainly 
cure, I feel a sadness which it is difficult to overcome ; and I feel after all 
that it was not my persuasion that brought people here, but that this 
country was ripe for development and the people of intelligence only took 
their cue from me. 

WHAT INTELLIGENCE CAN DO. 

Florida is certainly, for the intelligent poor, and cultured invalid — a " land 
of promise." Our fruit culture is a genteel and exceedingly lucrative busi- 
ness. The coarse, robust, sturdy people, such as thousands who go out West, 
to wade in mud and battle with cyclones, to work from daylight till dark 
every day in the year, raise great quantities of hay and grain to feed the farm 
stock, and do the heavy manual labor of our nation, do not like Florida on 
first sight, and rarely remain when they come. Those who like Florida 
best are more intellectual than animal in their tastes and tendencies. 
Some of our most successful people were professional men at home, or 
were engaged in some genteel or light trade or calling. 

In a climate like ours, any lady can work at the cultivation of an orange 
grove, and not only superintend the work, but actually perform all the labor 
required to bring one hundred orange trees into bearing ; when this is 
done, the owner is worth $10,000, and can at the longest, with high fer- 
tilizing, accomplish this in from seven to ten years. Of course, there must 
be some outside source from which to get a living and fertilizers, if one's 
whole time is devoted to orange culture ; but how many delicate and re- 
fined men and women there are who have a small income that would sup- 



23 

I 

port them, but who, in a cold climate, have no prospects for more than a 
mere living, and who could in Florida make a handsome fortune by de- 
voting a few years to rearing an orange grove of a few hundred trees. 
But away I go again ; this paper is intended to show the advantage of 
making investments in unimproved lands, and the subject — orange growing 
for profit or pleasure — will be fully discussed in a separate paper devoted 
to our products. 

Investments in land have one advantage, the owner need not even visit 
the State to make money. 

INVESTMENTS. 

If he buy at government price, it certainly can never be any lower, and 
there is an absolute certainty that the government land will soon be all 
taken, and those who own it will not sell at less than $5 per acre ; then I 
shall make a specialty of selecting from private lands the best to be had 
for the amount at my disposal. What I am selecting now at $1.50 per 
acre I expect to buy again in a year or two for other clients at from $5 to 
$20 per acre, and part of that again at higher prices. Here is a sample of 
my system. I located A. S. Pendry seven years ago ; he sold twenty-five 
acres in a year at $10 per acre. I bought twenty acres of this for a client, 
John S. Cothran, of Medina, N. Y., at $1,250, two years ago, and a few 
weeks ago I bought fifteen acres, the unimproved part at $1,800, and the last 
purchaser will make as much on the rise in value in the next year as any 
former purchaser. I bought for my correspondent, Frank G. Hawley, of 
Westfield, Mass., five acres of Pendry's land two years ago at $50 per 
acre, and now it is worth $400 per acre, apart from the improvements. I 
bought for him 40 acres of government land at $1.50 per acre, it is now 
worth $20. He sent a check for $500 to invest for him where it could be 
turned over. I bought 40 acres of land, of which I have sold one half at 
$600, thus getting back the original investment, and the best half of the 
land left, which will sell for not less than $i,ooo in less than a year. 

Dr. F. M. Oakly, of Ypsilanti, Mich., permitted me to buy for him i6o 
acres of land at $800 ; he planted a small grove of ten acres at an expense 
of about $600. I then bought the place from him for another client, Frank 
Adams, of Akron, Ohio, at $3,200. Dr. Oakly allowed me to reinvest part 
of the money. I bought 160 acres of United States land for him for $240, 
and bought it of him a short time ago for Gibson Brothers, of Cmcinnati. 
for $800 ; the doctor promptly notified me to reinvest in good land, as I 
thought best. So now he has a mile square, nearly, for an investment of 
$240 less than a year ago. 

Now, some of those who do not know me or understand how this can 
be, will say : " Why do you not make all the money yourself .?" In the 
first place, land in South Florida had no value till people came in, and until 
capitalists took an interest there, and it increases in value just in propor- 
tion to the number of people interested in a given radius, and a man of 



24 

influence will often enhance the value of lands around his property by his 
name alone more than other men of small means would by actual resi- 
dence. It is by persistent and indefatigable efforts in getting every one 
possible interested as owners or settlers, that we have so many friends of 
Florida in every city, town and hamlet in North America, and every time 
land changes hands it is divided into smaller tracts, some of which are sure 
to be improved, and this is what enhances the value. 

My system of development extends back to the first successful efforts 
made after the war, and having selected good locations where there are 
large bodies of good land, where it is healthy and free from insect pests, I 
am enabled through my immense correspondence to buy for my clients, 
divide up and buy for others from the first purchasers, and so on, till it all 
falls into the hands of people who hold it, or till it is divided into the 
smallest lots that will do for fruit growing, five acres being the ideal 
"grove." 

In the neighborhood of Eustis and Mount Dora three years ago no land 
had sold for above $12.50 per acre, except one lot. The land was all 
entered by me for the settlers three years before. They were anxious for 
development, and agreed to permit me to price the lands and get in more 
settlers. I divided up several thousand acres, and now no land can be had 
for less than $25, and some is sold at $400 per acre. 

HOW I SECURE GOOD CITIZENS. 

On my lists of correspondents I have nearly 10,000 names of persons 
who have written me about Florida, and many write now and then for as 
long as seven years, and when we think it the proper time, they come ; they 
have confidence in my judgment, and the honesty of my motives, and are 
willing to go where I think is best. 

Henry Harris, Esq., of Aurora, Canada, corresponded with me for five 
years ; a few months ago he came and bought a lot near me, and has built 
a nice home. 

Dr. A. Shepherd, of Glendale, Ohio, corresponded with me four years, 
and at last I entered 80 acres of U. S. land for him, and through him I 
secured twenty other excellent people from Cincinnati. 

A mere accident in meeting a man and getting him interested brings 
dozens of his friends, and their friends, and year after year the ramifications 
of his influence continue to spread so that there is no doubt about the 
future. 

I, of course, look out for my ovv^n colonies, and it would be unreasonable 
to expect me to permit the machinery which I have at work to be used for 
the benefit of some portion of the State of which I never thought enough 
;o own property, or settle any of my clients there ; hence, those who link 
their fortunes with mine are sure to have rapid development, and all the 
means in my power used for our mutual benefit. My plan has always been 
:o continue dividing up till the land is in the hands of small holders ; and 



25 

although a family may own but five acres, when the unimproved land 
reaches its maximum value, then the opportunities to enhance its value by 
improvement is practically unlimited, as there cannot be a shadow of doubt 
that there are orange groves such as David Stewart's, near Apopka City, 
that cannot be bought for $10,000 per acre, and that pay good interest on 
that valuation. 

HONORABLE DEALING PAYS. 

For my correspondents who want to purchase orange groves, my facili- 
ties and knowledge of the country, and the individual properties, enable 
me to purchase to the very best advantage. I give to each one who ap- 
plies the very best bargain to be found for the am.ount he wishes to invest. 
We at one time had an enterprising and sensible dealer in horses, in Jack- 
sonville, Florida, now deceased, James Thrasher. All any one need do was 
to write him a letter enclosing a check for the amount he wished to invest 
in a horse or mule, and give him some outline of what he wanted, and by 
return boat an animal would come better selected than a man who was not 
posted in horse buying could find on his own judgment in a month. I 
would not for a moment undertake to select a horse or mule for myself 
while "Jim " Thrasher was alive. I knew he would do better for me than 
I could do for myself. This was not morality, or what is called honesty 
from a religious standpoint, but it was simply business, and ever while 
Thrasher lived, no one in this State could do more business in his line than 
he did. He was not forced to cheat any one, because he could do enough 
regular business to earn all the money he wanted. He understood his busi- 
ness, could get all the consignments of horses he could handle, and was 
allowed to sell at what he thought was right ; both buyer and seller trusted 
him ; he was paid a fair compensation and no one was cheated. 

Now, everyone knows what a reputation horse dealers have for trickery ; 
so with land agents. I give you this example of a sensible horse trader, 
and I assure you there are land men who have brains enough to know that 
swindling does not pay in the long run. 

To make a living squarely at trading in horses, no man without experi- 
ence could under any circumstances succeed, and how much more does a 
man need experience and ample evidence of the superiority of his skill 
when he offers himself to the public as a suitable person to be trusted and 
implicitly relied upon in the important matter of selecting a home, and to 
invest perhaps the savings of years of industry, or in pointing out the road 
to a competency to those who have no means; surely a sensible person will 
ask, "who has arrived at that goal through his directions?" and if he can 
show us none, he is not to be trusted. 

How many heart-sick people have returned to the North cursing Florida, 
who have fallen into the hands of sharks and scoundrels, who endeavored 
to settle them in North Florida, or in the rotten limestone regions of South 
Florida. In the first they find frost, sleet, sand and disappointment ; in 



26 

•.:ie other malignant fevers, while thousands in Orange and adjacent health- 
ful regions have found health and prosperity ; all the failures are due to 
seeking and adopting the advice of the newly fledged land agents who 
care nothing for the success of the people they sell to, except to fleece 
them, and then lie in wait for another victim. 

I have a correspondent here in New York (he is now trying to take hold 
with me), who read in an advertisement of a sharking firm in Jackson- 
ville, of a small place near town. He was advised to buy the place at $1,500; 
he has kept it a year, and now has discovered that his property is not in 
the fruit region at all, and that he cannot sell it for anything near what it 
cost him. He finds he can grow neither limes, lemons, pineapples guavas, 
or any other sub-tropical fruit except sweet oranges, and they take fifteen 
years of nursing ; so far out of their latitude, before they bear, and then are 
dwarfed and sickly compared with orange trees two hundred miles further 
South. To be restricted to sweet oranges alone was not what he expected 
when he went to Florida. This is the result of dealing with either unscru- 
pulous or inexperienced men. A man who offers his advice for a considera- 
tion, and cannot show that he has knowledge from experience in any trade 
or profession, is dishonest to begin with, because strangers in Florida can- 
not well afford to submit themselves as material for new land agents to ex- 
periment on. 

If a prospective investor or home seeker when he meets one of these 
confidence operators calling themselves " Real Estate Agents," or " Land 
Agents," will just ask such fellows to show who has done well by follow- 
ing their advice, it will put a stop to their importunities. 

FOUNDED ALTAMONTE. 

About twelve years ago I was at Tallahassee, at the Surveyor-General's 
office, making an outfit of maps and field notes for an exploration of the 
Biscayne Bay and Indian River country ; Col. Taylor brought and in- 
troduced to me Mr. Jno. M. Katline, of Cortland, N. Y., and inside of half 
an hour I convinced him that Orange County, Florida, was the place for 
him, and I located him and ten of his friends at what is now called Alta- 
monte, one of our thriving colonies. This was the founding of Alta- 
monte, but I afterwards planted a number there, and they brought their 
friends ; then land agents sprang up. 

MY HOBBY. 

It will, no doubt, be plain to my friends, that I have a weakness. It may 
be unnecessary to point it out, but as I may have many more that I am 
not aware of, the particular hobby I refer to is my pride in feehng that, 
through my solicitation and persistent effort, is due, either directly or indi- 
rectly, the great progress of Orange County ; and when I travel over Polk 
or Sumter, and see the vast stretches of land, as good as any in Orange, 
lying unoccupied, and look back over the lists of people who were brought 



27 

toOrang-e through my work, no one can blame me for being a little vain of 
my success ; and I believe that the hills of Orange would be as wild and 
uninhabited to-day as those of Polk and Sumter, were it not for my set- 
tlers and their friends who followed. 

I feel that my facilities are growing better every year, and I can now re- 
duce it to a mathematical certainty how much myself and friends can do 
for a good location in a year or two. 

My friends find fault at one feature in my work, that is, that I do not 
identify myself with one place long enough, to the exclusion of others ; to 
bring it up to the maximum, and get the full benefit of the rise in value. 
This is true ; but although it does not pay me as well now as it would to 
bend all my energies on one point, still it will be plain to my correspond- 
ents that it is to their best interests to keep ahead of high prices as much 
as possible, and give them the best possible bargains, regardless of per- 
sonal interest, at present. 

I started Orange City, and forthwith dropped it. It was in good hands. 
The settlers put there by me brought their friends, and have made a splen- 
did colony. I started Sylvan Lake, and worked it up to $20 per acre, then 
dropped it. Few have settled there since, but the groves have grown and 
flourished, and there is not a finer region of orange groves in all Florida 
than within a radius of three miles from Mrs. Weiser's house at Island 
Lake. 

When I had all the U. S. lands and State lands entered for my clients, 
it was my plan to open other new regions of cheap land. This cannot 
last much longer, for all the public land will soon be taken ; then it is my 
purpose to settle down in the town of my choice and attend to a grove for 
myself. 

MY FIRST WORK IN FLORIDA. 

The first work done by me in South Florida, within half an hour of my 
arrival, was to save the seeds of a sweet orange and plant them. Trees 
grew from those seeds, have borne oranges, and the seeds from the pro- 
duct have been planted and borne again, since my advent here. When I 
take a retrospect of this, I could almost wish that I had devoted my whole 
time and energies to the cultivation of the soil. I could have a fortune 
long ago, and it would matter very little to me if no other settler had ever 
come, except from a social standpoint. During every year in the " Sun- 
land State," I have experimented with the products, and brought many 
things to a successful issue. For example, I brought the first lot of pine- 
apple plants ever imported to Orange County, in 1870, and wrote a great 
many letters recommending their cultivation, but only one man paid any 
attention to them, Mr. Balsley, of Sylvan Lake ; and now, after ten years' 
doubt and experiment, my idea has been proven a good one, practicable, 
and pineapples are bidding fair to become a leading industry. 

I raised thousands of orange trees from the seed, transplanted thousands 



28 

hi wild stocks, cleared and budded wild groves, cleared and ditched hum- 
mocks and muck beds, and spent considerable money in proving that my 
theories were practicable. I will republish herewith the first nursery circu- 
lar ever printed in Florida, and during all my time in Florida it has been my 
practice to be largely engaged in the rearing of trees and plants, so that 
when I say anything about our soils or products, it is from my own expe- 
rience, as well as observation, under all possible circumstances. 

While I had large nurseries, it was a great help to the settlement of our 
county to be able to sell trees to my settlers at low prices, and in many 
instances on time, while many of the fine groves now coming into bearing 
could never have existed but for my foresight in having plenty of trees to 
sell, on long time, when settlers had no money to buy. 

In ten years I had accomplished a good deal toward getting Orange 
County peopled, and a strong tide of emigration mustered to Florida, but 
unfortunately the Democracy elected the Governor and everything was 
turned against us. It is noteworthy that the majority of our large in- 
vestors, and, in fact, all our settlers, are Republicans, and a few ignorant 
demagogues amongst the Democrats threatened the total expulsion of 
Yankees if the Democracy should succeed. I was at the pulse of emigration, 
and at once the result was felt. No Republicans who knew Florida and the 
Florida people valued the threats or dreaded any serious results, but to 
honest people of the North it was difficult to explain. Republican dema- 
gogues retailed with variations the deeds of violence perpetrated South, to 
make political capital, and emigration of a desirable class practically ceased 
for a time, till confidence was restored, and then it took a long time and 
hard work to get it up to its old volume. When emigration stopped I 
availed myself of my enforced leisure to read law, and for two years did 
very little in the matter of emigration except to keep up my correspond- 
ence. I was admitted and at once determined to go to New York and try 
to awaken a new interest in South Florida. I soon convinced my corre- 
spondents that politics had nothing to do with a man's success in Florida, 
and the average Ku Klux was not an animal calculated to inspire much fear 
in the heart of a Yankee. They might, in remote and uncivilized districts, 
succeed in keeping a few negroes from the polls, but as a rule were an ex- 
ceedingly low and cowardly breed, and did not constitute any alarming part 
of the population, and were, in fact, not recognized by the respectable Demo- 
crats of the State, except, perhaps, for what they could do on election day. 
I started a monthly paper devoted to emigration and invalids, called the 
Climate Cure, and subsequently bought the Florida New Yorker, which 
two papers were merged and used wholly to work up an emigration to 
South Florida ; and how well I succeeded thousands who read those papers 
can testify. Financially, in all the ups and downs, I lost heavily, but 
was laying the foundation for my present business. 

In 1877 I owned about 4,000 acres of the finest locations in Orange 
County, a property, which if ready sales continued, would sell for at least 



29 

$75.ooo. and which is worth to-day not less than double that amount. I 
was in debt about $8,000, and I sacrificed nearly all my property to pay my 
debts and to carry out my plans for a new system of business. I adopted 
the rule to " pay as you go," and in six years have adhered to it ; so that 
what I have is my own, and if a depressed market stares me in the 
face again, I shall quietly wait for a better one. 

NO DEPRECIATION. 

In this connection I must say, moreover, that I never sold a tract of unim- 
proved land for less than four times what it cost, although I sold many tracts 
at one-tenth of their value ; and I feel especial pride in being able to say that 
there are more titles on record in my name than there are in the name of 
any other person in South Florida, and not one has ever been in litigation, 
Being both a surveyor and a la\v)-er, enables me to know that the bound- 
aries and the titles to the land I buy for myself or my customers are per- 
fect and beyond dispute or litigation, while my experience with the pro- 
ducts of our State enables me to select the proper soil ; and my experience 
as a colonizer or founder of settlements gives me an, exact knowledge of 
what locations will enhance in value most rapidly and permanently. 

I lived in New York City two years and returned to Orange County, 
Florida, June, 1880. My publishing business cost me considerable, as I 
sent out tens of thousands of sample copies of my paper, and got together a 
correspondence amounting to nearly ten thousand names of people 
anxious to go to Florida. I sent hundreds down to Orange County, but I 
found that they were nearly all coming back dissatisfied, and few of them 
could reach the region I sent them to, so many selfish and dishonest parties 
would beset them on their journey that they often became disgusted and 
returned. Many of them who went down to P'lorida while I was in New 
York have since come back, and finding me here have settled near me, and 
are now delighted with the country. 

When I returned my ready means were limited, and I had nothing but 
some securities and a few hundred acres of land. I had bought consider- 
able Florida property while in New York for my clients, and could have 
done a good business. My paper was just beginning to pay, and by the 
present time (1883) would pay from $5,000 to $10,000 a year ; but I could 
not stand the Northern climate any longer ; my throat and lungs were as 
much affected as when I first came to Florida. The people I was sending 
to Florida were falling into the hands of sharks, and it was plain to me 
that there was no other course but to go at once and invite my correspond- 
ents to come, instead of say ^r?, showing my faith in Florida by making my 
own home there. 

My family were delighte^l with the move, and away we sailed back to our 
own dear old South Florida, and a happier family never existed than we 
were when we hailed with delight the grand old palm trees and orange 
groves of Florida. 



30 



BEGINNING AGAIN. 



The first thing I did on arrival was to secure the appoii.tment of census 
enumerator in the portion of Orange County where I had been settling 
northern people during the five years preceding. My object was to have 
an opportunity to visit every family and to inquire into their affairs, and 
arrive at a clear understanding as to the progress they had made on the 
homes I had selected for them, and also to find whether my colonies were 
ripe for a division of the land, and the beginning of what I term the 
"secondary stage " of settlement ; that is, when it is time to divide up the 
1 60 acre homesteads and invite a new influx of people with more means 
than the homesteaders had, and also to settle upon a point to make my 
headquarters where all my correspondents could find me. It required 
about forty days walking through West Orange to enumerate its inhabi- 
tants. I found that very few had settled in my colonies except those I had 
sent there, and at the best points, such as Eustis and Mount Dora, no 
land had yet been sold at more than ten to fifteen dollars per acre. The 
country was waiting patiently for something to turn up. The settlers 
were making groves slowly, because money was scarce. No one was 
"booming" the place. I had sent down a number of good men, but there 
was an unfortunate quarrel existing between one of my first settlers 
and all the others. This kept many from settling ; but the site of the 
present village of Eustis was for some twelve or thirteen years one of my 
favorite locations for a future town, and I decided to give it a start. 

I made contracts with several of my settlers for the agency of the lands, 
and divided them ; and any one who will visit the place can see that in 
less than three years more has been done towards building up a village 
than has ever before been done in the same time from the start at any 
other point in the State. 

FOUNDING EUSTIS. 

To show my correspondents what can be done by the individual effort 
of one person, without capital, let me give a short history of the region 
embraced in the village site of Eustis. In the summer of 1865 I found 
Capt. St. Claire Abrams and Florence J. Titcomb at Sanford, looking for 
land. I told them of a beautiful lake in West Orange, and government 
land on its shores ; showed them the government map, which they had 
never seen before. They went with me to see it. They were pleased, and 
settled there. Capt. Abrams wrote some long and glowing letters to the 
Atlanta Constitution, and brought, I am told, Mr. Ybanes, Sexton 
Grady, and perhaps others. I, then settled the Woodward Brothers, who 
brought Capt. Kern, of Sorrento, from Connersville, Ind. Next I settled 
August Gottsche, of Morristown, N, J. ; Isaac Schultz, of Berks Co., Pa., 
who brought his cousin, Henry Schultz, of Poinciana; then Smith & 
Clifford. Geo. W. Bowen, who afterwards brought James Blount, now a 
land agent, and Mr. E. G. Rehrer, a prominent surveyor and engineer. 



31 

Settled Mr. A. S. Pendry, who soon after, with some assistance fronn me, 
sold to D.W. Herrick : and the Key Brothers, who afterwards brought Mr. 
Hore, and his friend, induced Mr. Way and Mr. Osborn, of the Sanford 
Journal io take land there, and through them we secured Mr. L. G. Pres- 
cott, of Exeter, N. H. I settled Col. G. H. Norton, of Cowley Co., Kan- 
sas, who got his brother interested and several others, and sold land to 
Mr. Donnelly, Mr. Power, Doctor Rosecrance, John Dietlericks. Through 
the Florida New Yorker I secured Mr. N. L. Whitney, Dr. Fahnestock 
and Dr. Smith. Mr. Whitney brought Mr. Horton and son, and I bought 
for them, Mr. Farmer and Mr. Foust, of Wilseyville, Ohio. I located Mr. 
Jackson, of Titusville, Pa. ; and through him came Col. Hazzard, of Pitts- 
burg, Pa., and others. I located E. F. King and P. P. Morin. I located 
Fred. Johnson, deceased ; and he brought Mr. Ward, and Mr. Ward 
brought Mr. Hinman and several others. 

I located Mr. Stephens, who came from California, and last year brought 
Col. Taylor, who bought Mr. Stephens' grove, and who established the 
loo acre grove at Seneca Lake, and has brought us several settlers. 

There are a few that I am not exactly positive as to how they came to 
be attracted here, but it is safe to say they never would have come here 
had I not put the machine in motion, Mr. Wood, Utica, N. Y. ; Mr. Cul- 
len, Dover, Delaware ; Doctor Hutchins, of Toledo, Ohio ; Mr. Bogert, 
Ocean Grove, N. J. ; Mrs. Hudnut, of Tuskegee, Ala. ; Mr. Wicking, of 
Marcellus P'alls, N. Y., Dr. Cadwallader, of Waterloo, Neb.; Mr. Weaver 
and Mr, Wallace, of Missouri ; Mr. Frank Hawley, of Westfield, Mass. ; 
Mr. Mead and son of 674 Madison Ave., New York ; Mr. Redding, Mr. 
Savage, and many others came directly through my solicitation. These 
persons mentioned and their friends and families constitute nearly the 
entire population, and it is safe to say that not one of the present popula- 
tion would ever have seen the place if I had not brought them here and 
worked for it. 

I mention this to show that by turning attention to a point in good faith 
when it is a really desirable one, with my facilities, it is easy to give it an 
impetus, and the first few, if of the right stamp, will bring more, and now 
Eustis will thrive without any further help from me, if it should seem best 
to me to withdraw my support. 

Land at Eustis now is wofth, within a radius of a mile, from $50 to $100 
per acre, and within a radius of half a mile, from $25 to S500 for lots. It 
has reached its maximum. Evidences of impending strife are visible, and 
contention may repel for a time, but eventually Eustis will be a very fine 
place. 

It is very much to be regretted that people at many of my settlements 
are allowing themselves to build great hopes on the future prospects of towns. 
This is wrong, and in our climate will not work. There is not the slightest 
room for doubt that our whole county will eventually be almost a contin- 
uous village of groves and houses, but there will never be any great 



32 

fortunes made in city lots. A store or two, or at most a score of small 
business houses, is all that can or ought to be expected at any point, and 
one place being about as good as another for trade, people will not go far 
to towns. 

Each family wants a few acres for grove and garden, and you will iind 
few who will build homes on mere town lots. Our country can never be 
a manufacturing country ; hence we can have no large aggregation of 
people at any point, and we shall see that the tendency will be to village 
life. The whole country will be a network of railroads to carry off the 
heavy products, fruits and vegetables, and to bring back the enormous 
quantities of fertilizers that will be needed. Immense numbers of people 
will be required to care for the groves and gardens, to cultivate, to 
gather, prepare and ship the fruits, but they will not live in the towns ; the 
proper place for them is in the groves and gardens, where they will have 
better health and society than would be possible in towns in a warm cli- 
mate. So I advise owners of town lots in South Florida cities not to go in 
debt on the supposition that town lots will go off like hot cakes ; for when 
the land reaches the maximum that any one would pay for it, for the pur- 
pose of planting a grove, that is the time to sell what you do not need for 
yourself. So it will not pay my settlers to quarrel about who is going to 
have the cities, for I assure them there will be no large towns. 

My plan is to concentrate my energies on the further development of the 
region embraced in the "Map of the Lake Region." Where all my colo- 
nies are located, and giving myself room enough, so that if the people of 
one portion put such prices on their lands that my friends would not be 
wise in paj'ing, we can drop them and go to another part ; but the chances 
are that such arrangements will be made that we can get lands in a shape 
to control them, and prevent any feverish excitement of the land owners 
from blocking the settlement of the country. 

There are plenty of people willing to sell a part of their lands, and there 
is not the slightest danger that land will be put at prohibitory prices till 
enough has changed hands to guarantee the settlement of the country, 
and then land will sell for very high prices. 

While in New York in 1880, Wm. Wicking, of Marcellus Falls, N. Y., 
sent me $60 to buy 40 acres of U. S. land. A few months after my re- 
turn he came to what is now Eustis. I then sold him an acre and a frac- 
tion of Pendry's land for $100. He bought out one of my homesteaders, 
and I secured the land for him (160 acres) near Mt. Dora. Mr. Wicking 
has sold the lot in Eustis for $800, and the homestead for $3,000. The 
first 40 acres is worth $1,000, and he has a lot in Dora worth $500. So 
he did well to take my advice, though he started with but about $300. 

About the same time, Mr. A. N. Woodruff, of Plain City, Ohio, sent me 
$60 to buy 40 acres of U. S. land. I bought on Lake Lincoln a lot worth 
at least $500. 

Mr. Redding, now of Sorrento, stepped into my office in New York in 



33 

i88o. I persuaded him to go to Florida, selected a homestead for him; 
he went to it, and with no capital but a great deal of energy and brains, 
he has made property worth over $10,000. The homestead selected by 
me has alone made him $5,000. 

Three young men strayed into my office in New York ; one is Philip 
Isaacs, of Eustis, the other names I have forgotten. I sent them to Orange 
County. Philip remained ; the other two came back finding fault with 
Florida. Philip is now worth two or three thousand dollars. 

I could tell the names of many who went and came back disgusted or 
homesick, but they are nearly all in correspondence with me, and see that 
the fault was their own. They can now see how foolish they were, and I 
am getting them back to Florida one by one, so I won't give their names, 
as they do not want their folly made public. 

Not one who ever returned dissatisfied with Florida has done near as 
well as they could there, and to many it has amounted to a misfortune that 
they did not take my advice. The opportunities are as good now» ever 
before, and I never tire trying to get my old correspondents started 
aright. 

Among my settlers are : John H. Osborn, of Binghamton, N. Y., took a 
homestead, 160 acres, 1876, now worth $5,000. Robt. Finley, of Coving- 
ton, Ky., homestead, 1876, worth $15,000. A. K. Reeve, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
homestead, 1876, worth $8,000. August Gottsche, Morristown, N. J., 
homestead, worth $8,000. Isaac Schultz, now of Deer Lodge, Montana, 
1875, homestead, now worth $10,000. Mrs. Donnelly, of Weston, Ohio, 
homestead, 1875, now worth $20,000. D, W. Adams, of Watikon, Iowa, 
1875, for self and friends, over 1,000 acres of State and U. S. lands, at 
$1.25 peracre, and three homesteads, now worth an average of$5o per acre. 
James M. Wilcox, Glen Mills, Pa., 1878, 1,400 acres sold him of my own 
land, at $3.50 per acre, now worth an average of $60 per acre. Sold to 
Miss Lottie Wright, of West Brighton, Staten Island, N. Y., 80 acres in 
1878, at $3.50, now worth $25 per acre. 

I bought for Hon. Horatio Bisbee, congressman from our district, 1,000 
acres in 1881 ; he gave me one fourth for locating ; it is now selling at from 
$15 to $30 per acre. Col. G. H. Norton, of Eustis, homestead, 1876, now 
worth $10,000; no capital. Geo. H. Stevens, homestead, 1876, worth 
$20,000. W. A. Gilbert, of Jacksonville, homestead, 1876, now 
worth, without improvements, $10,000. Geo. W. Bowen, 1875, home- 
stead, $7,000. S. Y. Finley, of Jacksonville, Florida, 1875, homestead, 
which he forfeited by non compliance with the law, now worth $5,000. 
C. A. Finley, 1875, homestead (residence. Lake City, Florida), land now 
worth $4,000. C. Codington, editor Florida Agriculturist, Deland, Fla., 
homestead, 1876, now worth $3,000 ; never lived on or improved it. A. S. 
Matlack, Sorrento, located 1875, homestead, near Round Lake, now 
worth $4,000 ; Mr. Matlack has accumulated other property, and is worth, 
all told, perhaps $6,000, or more ; started with no capital. 



34 

J. W. King, druggist, Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., Homestead No. 
11,876, now worth $10,000; P. P. Morin, Mass., 1875, now worth $6,000, 
Capt. St. Claire- Abrams, Tavares, 1875, homestead, now worth $10,000. 
Capt. Abrams has since branched out in various directions, is a dis- 
tinguished attorney, and has founded the town of Tavares. He estimates 
his whole property at $300,000; he commenced with no capital. Florence 
J. Titcomb, of Eustis, Florida, homestead in 1875, now worth $4,000, other 
property worth $2,000 ; began without capital. 

But why continue on in this strain, which I could do till I gave you five 
hundred names at least, of good reliable citizens, any of those mentioned 
you can write to, or go and see, and'verify my statements. 

Now let me add another bit of my own history, and by the time you get 
through reading this you will know just about what my capacity is. There 
are thousands of men of more ability than mine, who cannot do as much 
for themselves at the North in a lifetime, as I have done in the last three 
yearsA Florida. I have given some idea of what a few of my clients have 
made Dy taking my advice, and now I will tell you what I have done for 
myself. 

MY SUCCESS. 

I bought from A. J. Smith, of Eustis, 120 acres of land, at $9 per acre 
and had only one hundred dollars to pay down. I sold within a year, at 
$25 per acre, and then bought with the profits 80 acres at Mount Dora at 
$1,800, of which I have since sold several lots at $100 per acre, all m less 
than two years ; took 240 acres as my commission for selecting one thou- 
sand acres for Col. Bisbee, of Jacksonville, now worth $5,000 ; bought of 
Diston six 40-acre lots near Mount Dora, on Lake Simpson, now worth 
$3,000 ; bought twelve 40-acre lots in the vicinity of Sorrento, which can be 
sold anytime at $25 per acre. My home place at Eustis I have refused 
$5,000 for, cost me $25 per acre, and got it for a bad debt three years ago. 
My 40 acres at Eustis I am selling at $2 5 per lot, which will amount to over 
$5,000. 160 acres at Mount Dora cost me $300 two years ago, is now 
worth on an average $50 per acre, or $8,000. My other property in Mount 
Dora is well worth $10,000. My Crooked Lake, 40 acres, is worth what I 
have been offered, at least, $2,000 ; other scattering lands in Orange County 
at Sylvan Lake, and around Benton Prairie, together worth about $10,000, 
and my Sumter County lands, all told, will make at a ]ow valuation 
$100,000; nine-tenths of this is made in the rise on value. 

Now to show you that I do as well for those who depend on my judg- 
ment as I do for myself, I induced Col. M. J. Taylor, in December of i88r, 
to buy the Stevens place, and guaranteed, verbally, that he would be able to 
sell the unimproved land and part of the grove in a year or eighteen 
months for enough to pay for the old grove. He paid $6,000 for 65 acres, 
and has sold enough to pay him all his money back with interest, and the 
orange grove he has left is worth $10,000. I tried to induce an old 
correspondent, Mr. Wm. H. Sembler, of Maiden Lane, New York, to buy 



35 

the Simpson place at Lake Dora, two years ago, at $3,600, and assured him 
that he could double his money in eighteen months. I bought it in part- 
nership with Col. J. M. Alexander, of Winfield, Kansas, afterwards, at 
$4,500, and we have doubled our money. Dozens of cases of the same 
nature have occurred every year since I have been in this business, and 
not a solitary instance of loss on the part of one of my clients, when 
they buy what I advise. If there is any one who bought land through my 
agency who paid more than he could sell it for, then let him come forward 
and I will make up the deficiency. If the foregoing is true, then there is 
no doubt that money can be made by investing in Florida property 
through my advice, and we will go on to the next question. 

IN MONEY MATTERS. 

As to my reliability in money matters, my present correspondents and cli- 
ents do not inquire any longer into this, but when I offer my services to a 
stranger he is entitled to references. About $200,000 in checks and drafts 
payable to my order, have passed through my hands in the past twelve 
months. S. H. Mead, of 674 Madison Avenue, New York, has made drafts 
to my order from time to time, to purchase property for him, amounting 
to about $14,000 ; Commander Borie of the Navy, Lynn, Mass., about 
§5,500; Gibson Bros., of Cincinnati, and friends, about $3,000; A. M. 
Kent, of Corry, Pa., about $5,000 ; Myron Waters, of Warren, Pa., about 
$2,000 ; Dr. John M. Evans, of Bellaire, Ohio, $5,000 ; Wm. H. Stevens, 
of Albany, N. Y., $1,000 ; E. F. King, of Mason, Florida, $1,600 ; Dr. R. 
Nutting, Carlinville, Illinois, $2,000, and many others of amounts of over 
one thousand dollars, and hundreds of checks under one thousand dol- 
lars. Any of the names mentioned I give as reference. Beside this I can 
give references in any town or city in the United States or Canada, as I 
am known in every part of our country; so if you find this true, you need 
not hesitate to invest in Florida lands through my advice or agency. 

LAND THE BASIS OF WEALTH. 

This imperfect outline of what we are doing in South Florida may seem 
too good to be true, but the means are now in the reader's hands to inves- 
tigate and test its accuracy. But if you will reflect a moment, you will 
find that all the great fortunes in our country are based on real estate, 
and nine tenths of our wealth consists in land with its appurtenances. In 
the new States, as they were opened up and peopled by the tide of emigra- 
tion ever since the early settlements of our nation, individuals have grown 
rich on the rise in value of land, when they have been so fortunate as to 
select land where a town or city afterwards grew up. Those who selected 
land valuable for farming only, did not accomplish much the first genera- 
tion, but by industry and economy, in from thirty to fifty years, the farming 
land is worth from $50 to $100 per acre, and if they have let it alone and 
have not cut away the timber, it is worth more ; near towns and cities it is 



36 

worth from $ioo up to $i,ooo per acre ; this grade of land, however, does 
not constitute one thousandth part of our agricultural land in the settled 
portion of our Union, while in the cities and towns land has a value from 
$i,ooo per acre upwards. Now, if we analyze this real estate business 
carefully, we shall see that one man in a hundred who settles in a new 
State in the West, will get land which in a number of years will be worth 
over $ioo per acre ; one in a thousand may secure and keep land that will 
be worth $i,ooo or upwards per acre for town or city lots. So that, 
although the majority of settlers of the right material do well in our other 
new States and territories by entering government land and being long 
enough on it for a rise, which comes in all countries with permanent popu- 
lation, and is valuable just in proportion to the number of white people 
living within a given radius, still their chances are very remote to get 
located where a prosperous town will make them rich, the thousands may 
secure farms worth $2,000 to $5,000, and a few $10,000, while a few may 
rsecure the valuable property. Why is this ? Simply because agricultural 
land is valuable in proportion to the rent it will pay for the purpose of 
raising crops alone ; away from cities, $100 per acre is the maximum. I 
know of the best land in Genesee valley that was settled seventy-five years 
ago, forty years ago was worth $100 per acre, and is worth about the 
same now, while land very near Rochester runs up to $1,000; so that 
although fortunes have been made and will continue to be made in all por- 
itions of our Union on the rise in value of land, it is very uncertain, and at 
best exceedingly slow, with very rare exceptions, in countries north of the 
snow line. In the portion of Florida which unquestionably possesses the 
true sub-tropical climate, sufficiently free from frosts to grow not " ear/y 
vegetables," but " winter vegetables," as there is quite a difference, and 
the lemon, lime, citron, guava, banana, pineapple, as well as the sweet 
orange, the land has a maximum value, improved and planted in the fruit 
trees of that latitude, of from $1,000 per acre to $10,000, and unimproved 
at present, for very choice spots as high as $500 per acre. Now, while 
the value of unimproved land for horticultural purposes is entirely governed 
by the society on or near it, and the number of white inhabitants, the value 
of bearing orange groves is not perceptibly governed by the number of 
people living near them, as we can see in the case of David Stewart's 
grove near Apopka, where it may be said that he is miles from a village 
and a mile from a neighbor almost ; but the yalue of a bearing grove is 
materially enhanced by beautiful natural surroundings, such as a high, dry 
and healthy region of pine land. This insures plenty of society in the near 
future, while a grove, no matter how profitable for fruit, but surrounded 
by, or on the borders of swamps, irreclaimable marshes or other worthless 
lands, leaving no room for others to come in and improve the society, is 
not so valuable and will never sell for as much, or be as desirable to keep, 
as the grove well situated. All these things must be carefully considered 
in selecting a location. 



37 

There is but one Florida in our Union, and but a small part of that 
where the fruits mentioned can be relied upon. Semi-tropical Florida is 
about all embraced in the regions between the 29th and 27th parallels of 
latitude ; below the 27th degree the whole face of the country is flat and 
subject to inundation at present. Grand drainage schemes have already 
been inaugurated and are progressing well, but no matter how successful 
they may be, it is plain that a flat country, even when drained, will not be 
desirable for homes; more than two thirds of the country, which may be 
called semi-tropical, is also low and wet, or high, sandy barren, and com- 
paratively worthless, or bordering on rich marshes or swamps, and wholly 
unfit for residences, so that the man or woman who owns 40 acrrs of the 
high pine land of South Florida ten years from this time will have a nice 
little start in the world. 

To return to the matter of making selections of cheap lands. It is my 
purpose to continue selecting for my friends till all the United Srales lands 
are entered, and then to select the best from the railroad, Uiston, and 
other large grants, so long as they sell good land at the minimum prices- 
These lands I am locating principally for parties who seek good safe in- 
vestments, and intend to wait till such land is in demand, when they can 
certainly sell at from five to ten times cost. But there is another class of 
selections which is of more importance than the purchase of public land ; I 
refer to the selection of cfioice home lots in the region already well settled ; 
a man who has a family will not want to go out in the wild uninhabited 
townships and settle on the dollar and a quarter land ; it would not be wise 
to do so now till the older settlements are better populated ; then people 
will have to push out further, but where a number of families g>) together 
they bring society with them. In the older settlements I am s^ lecting 
beautiful lots of from ten to forty acres each, at from $10 per acre upwards. 
Such lands have transportation and neighbors near them now, and are en- 
hancing in value where they are settling up, as rapidly as any other property, 
and it is a question which I am not prepared to decide fully, whetiirr $100 
invested in $10 land, will not increase to $1,000 as rapidly, as it would if 
invested in dollar and a quarter land. I am continually buying both kinds 
of property for myself, and each proves very satisfactory. 

OPENINGS FOR ALL CLASSES OF PEOPLE, 

It is my firm belief that before ten years a million Northern i).-ople will 
find homes in South Florida, and my advice to all who tiesire to avail 
themselves of the consequent rise in value of property, is 10 purchase as 
soon as possible as much good land in Florida as they can without endan- 
gering their other interests. 

School teachers who can save a few dollars ; business men who may 
wish at some future time to retire , clergymen, artisans, clerks, profes- 
sional men, or all kinds and conditions of men and women would Co well 
to consider the propriety of making small investments in South Florid?.. If 



38 

one can only save one dollar a week, he or she can buy a five acre lot of 
$io land in twelve months, and this in five years will be worth from five to 
ten times the original investment. This to many hard working people is 
more money than they could ever get together in any other way. Through 
my method of making small investments this can be done. I take a good 
forty acre tract belonging to one of my clients, divide into sixteen two and 
a half acre lots, and sell it to parties who cannot buy larger tracts. It costs 
neither party any mofe than if sold as a whole, and by this means I enable 
the man or woman who wants a small piece to get it as cheaply as the 
party who buys extensively. At present I am buying chiefly government 
land for my clients, but in a few months the public land will be all taken, 
and then the purchase of private tracts will be my principal business 

ORANGE GROVE ASSOCIATIONS. 

To those who wish to plant groves I can offer the cheapest and surest 
way to procure an orange grove. Col. Taylor and H. F. Smith, of Wash- 
ington, D. C, organized an orange grove association, and it has proved an 
unqualified success. The stock consists of two hundred shares of $ioo 
each ; the grove is one hundred acres ; a member may take one or more 
shares. Col. Taylor took the contract from the association to furnish 
ever}'thing, land, trees, labor and cultivation, and^turn over the grove com- 
plete, including the first year's cultivation, for a stipulated price per acre. 
The association now has a fine grove, and all the stock is not yet paid up. 
They pay in monthly assessments of five dollars per share, so that clerks, 
male or female, can easily take two or more shares ; in twenty months 
the share is paid for ; then till the grove comes into bearing there will be 
small assessments quarterly, to keep it cultivated and fertilized. 

In seven years this will be a bearing grove, and each share will be worth 
from $i,ooo to $2,000, and when in full bearing be worth more than treble 
that amount. Five shares will bring in more money than the present salary 
of a clerk in a government office. This is a practical and successful way 
for a number of good parties to procure orange groves, and there might be 
a clause in the articles of association providing for setting apart the indi- 
vidual shares, so that after a few years, or at least when profitable, the 
shareholders could have homes on their own lots. This is the best plan 
when they secure the proper resident contractor to make the grove, 
and a competent man to attend to it afterwards. I selected the land for 
the "Lake Eustis Orange Grove Association," and the location is a very 
important matter. 

I would not advise people of small means to go into associations of this 
kind on a large scale, as they then become cumbersome, impracticable and 
degenerate into stockjobbing concerns, falling to pieces of their own weight. 
There is an object in small associations of one hundred acres or may be 
two hundred, because this can be organized amongst a number of people 
who are nearly all acquainted with each other. They go into it in good 



39 

faith to procure orange groves, and the object in uniting is to make a grove 
of sufficient importance to secure the aid and superintendence of com- 
petent and reliable men ; while if the same number of persons should try 
to make a number of small groves, half might i'ail, because the matter 
would be in the hands of so many different agents that some would be 
sure to neglect ; but by joining together, they are sure to succeed, if they 
work harmoniously and give their contracts to some one who has shown 
his skill and trustworthiness. 

A number of persons can also buy land contiguous and let their con- 
tracts to one man and get small individual groves, but they will not all suc- 
ceed, as some will neglect to furnish the requisite funds. However, this is 
no drawback to those who can and will furnish all that is needed. 

There is no trouble at all in getting groves made when the non-resident 
owners will do their part, provided they employ a man of tried responsi- 
bility to do the work. And if a party wants five acres or more of a grove 
he can make arrangements to have it completed for him almost as well 
alone as in an association. It is my purpose, however, to encourage and 
assist as many associations as possible to organize and plant, because this 
opens the gates to an orange grove for a class who could never succeed in 
any other way. An association of this kind could be organized in every 
city or town of twenty-five thousand inhabitants and upwards in the whole 
country, but they must be headed by persons of good repute and known 
capacity. Thousands can thus lay the foundation for a comfortable home 
and modest competency when old age or disease makes work irksome. 
These associations, of course, elect their own officers and control all the 
affairs of the association. There is no danger in losing what has been 
paid in, if at any time a member should find himself unable to go farther, 
as the shares are always salable, and after the first year increase in value 
rapidly. 

About ten years ago my old friend, Maj. Purman, who was at that time 
in Congress from Florida, conceived the idea of getting up an orange 
grove association. I was sent for to go to Washington and given an 
appointment on the grounds and buildings under General O. E. Babcock. 
The object was to enable me to remain in the city long enough to work up 
the matter amongst some of the leading citizens. There was a vacancy. 
Florida did not have her quota of appointees, and I was as well entitled to 
the office as any one, so I accepted it. When not at work for the Govern- 
ment I was busy at work for Florida, and the plans were all perfected, the 
whole amount subscribed, and I was about to return to Florida to plant 
the largest orange grove in the world, when the whole nation was shocked by 
the failure of Jay Cooke & Company. Nearly all our members were crippled 
financially, and the association collapsed. General Babcock was to be our 
president, and I got him so enthusiastic on the subject, that he would not 
postpone a grove ; so he bought some land from Mr. Sanford, who hap- 
pened along at that time, and planted a grove. He now has about one 
thousand trees bearing, and I claim him as one of my settlers. 



40 

Our association consisted of only ten members, including the superin- 
tendent, who was the only salaried officer. His duty was to make the 
grove. The association were to buy a large tract of land and lay it out in 
ten lots, plant half of each lot in fruit, and let each owner do as he pleased 
with the unimproved lot set apart for him. The intention was to prepare 
them for winter homes. This plan would work well, and should be 
adopted by well-to-do people who cannot come and make their groves 
under their own supervision. Say, take two hundred acres of land, plant 
one hundred and fifty in ten groves of one thousand trees each, and reserve 
ten five-acre lots for buildings and other trees ; after two, three, or five 
years divide so that each grove would have a wood lot contiguous ; this 
would make a model colony, and a joint property in seven years worth half 
a million of dollars, or in ten years a million. 

Those who read these pages and know nothing of our State will say that 
if such marvellous results are obtained, why is it that everybody in Florida 
is not rich ? And why do not people all go there and become millionaires ? 
There are many reasons why Florida is not already developed ; first, 
Florida was not needed till now, and she is being developed as fast as 
needed. The Western prairies were not developed till the increased popu- 
lation of the world needed the grain. All those things come in due time, 
just as soon as man is ready for them and needs them. The productions 
of Florida cannot be multiplied any faster than the demand by the increase 
of population and wealth, and there is no danger of over production, be- 
cause so few can bring themselves to do what I am about to urge upon all 
who go into horticulture in South Florida. 

ORANGE CULTURE. 

I bought a grove for a gentleman four years ago. I will not mention 
names this time, but it is a " true story." When he became the owner of 
a fine place for which he paid $8,000, he asked me, as all my clients do, 
what he had better do for it to get the best results, as he desired to get 
it into profitable bearing as soon as possible. I told him to buy 
a large quantity of guano and apply it at once, and when he wanted to do 
something more for the grove to apply some fertilizer, and when he had 
money he did not need, to buy more fertilizer for his grove. Four years will 
soon have passed away since he bought the grove, and still it is not bearing 
a great many oranges. A few trees near the house are bearing heavily, 
where they get the slops of the kitchen. The grove has grown, and looks 
well ; is green, and on the whole is doing about as well as the majority of 
groves. The owner keeps three or four horses on the place, pays a high 
priced man for superintending his work ; keeps one or two other men; 
has built a fine house costing $10,000, and expended two hundred dollars 
for fertilizer la^st year for one thousand trees. Now, what I want to im- 
press upon the minds of my readers is, that this is not " orange growing." 
High living, heavy household expenses, building expensive houses, hiring 



41 

a great force of men, and keeping a fine team and carriage, and travelling 
back and forth from Chicago to Florida, is not orange growing, and not one 
dollar ought to be charged to an orange grove except what must be paid 
for manures and for labor to apply it and take care of the grove. This 
ought to be figured closely ; all work can be done by contract. 

When I buy a grove for a customer, my advice, inv^ariably given, is to 
put a good, substantial fence close around the grove, if there is not one 
already ; clear up things generally ; apply at the earliest possible moment 
a heavy dressing of good ammoniated fertilizer; keep the ground clean; 
wash the trunks and main branches of the trees, and every three months 
manure* heavily. One good man, with a horse, can take care of one 
thousand trees, and do it well, but the trees ought to have $i,ooo worth of 
fertilizer every year for four years. The fourth year from planting they 
will bear fruit enough to pay the fifth year's expenses, and the fifth year 
the crop will be clear profit, and ought to amount to not less than $5 per 
tree, or $5,000. Put one-fourth of this into manures and labor, and 
always continue to put one-fourth back on your grove, and you will never 
fail to have a heavy crop of good fruit. Your trees will continue to in- 
crease in size and productiveness as long as they have room to grow 
larger. This is " orange growing." There is nothing intricate or mys- 
terious about it. It is simply a question of " dollars and cents." A given 
quantity of manure will produce certain results, and the manner of appli- 
cation, so long as it reaches the tree, is a matter of taste. The matter of 
bringing a given number of orange trees into a thrifty and prolific condi- 
tion is now reduced to an exact certainty, just as much so as producing a 
certain quantity of beef or pork ; and the absurd idea that still prev^ails 
among some so-called orange growers that their particular spots of land 
will produce large, healthy and prolific trees with little or no fertilizer, is 
as reasonable as it would be to expect a four hundred pound porker 
from two bushels of corn, or a fat bullock from a lean pasture. Our peo- 
ple have for many years been trying to get a tree worth $100 for about 75 
cents, and have not succeeded ; but those who have expended §5 to ^10 on 
the tree (not in high living for themselves) have succeeded beyond any 
question. It is astonishing how the majority of people will squirm and 
twist to try to get out of fertilizing a grove. They will resort to all kinds of 
experiments. Muck, compost, mulch, salt (because it is cheap), and every 
humbug recommended. Now, a great many of these things are good 
enough in their way. They make "filling," so to speak, but your trees 
may be washed, pruned, scraped, cultivated, and everything else done for 
them, and if you do not give them sufficient nitrogenous manure, they 
will look like cattle well stabled, well curried, but fed on straw. 

It is amusing to read the orange culture books and see how they ignore 
the main question. There is no treatise on " orange culture " extant that 
would give anyone directions that they could follow closely and succeed in 
orange culture. They are valuable reading, however, for those who are 



42 

engaged in the business. Gary's, for example, completely explodes the pet 
theories of our " Florida Fruit Growers' Association " in regard to budding. 

From my earliest days in orange growing I decided that the " Citrus " 
family are strictly true to the seed, and that the only way to obtain a sub- 
variety is by budding or grafting. It is a pretty generally accepted theory 
among horticulturists in northern fruits that the only way to produce a new 
variety is by hybridizing through the blossoms and to perpetuate by inocula- 
tion (budding and grafting). Of course the position I have taken is 
directly opposite to that adhered to in all northern fruits, and I have been 
alone amongst our southern theorists who adapted the northern theory to the 
citrus family. We have a number of high sounding names for sub- 
varieties of sweet oranges claimed to be hybrids produced by the mixing 
of "pollen," and which I have always contended were produced by the mix- 
ing of " sap " in budding sweet orange into some other variety or species 
of the citrus ; that no such varieties can be transmitted to a new tree, 
either from seed or bud, and that the seeds of such will invariably revert 
to the original seedling, and buds will mix with the new stock on which 
they may be engrafted. 

Now comes Mr. Gary to the front, and supports this theory, and shows 
that it has been clearly demonstrated by a report of a committee of the 
Southern Galifornia Horticulturists. It is not my own discovery, however, 
but was firmly fixed in my mind from what I could learn from residents of 
long standing before my time in Florida, and from observations all over 
the State. 

It is found that the sweet orange, or any variety budded or grafted on 
the coarse lemon or citron, produces a fruit partaking strongly of the char- 
acteristics of the lemon or citron, either in acidity or coarseness of rind or 
shape. 

Budding a sweet orange into a sour or bitter sweet, would not show at 
once, as there is no very marked difference in outward appearance ; but 
the lemon and citron first made it plain. This being true, it opens 
great possibilities to our fruit growers, and why can we not obtain large, 
showy, and excellent fruit by persistent grafting on the grape fruit, for ex- 
ample ? However, we have the finest orange in the world, which is known 
as the " Florida orange ;" in all its purity it has no equal. It has been 
mixed up badly by budding and grafting on inferior stock, but, fortunately, 
it goes back at once to its original purity, when planted and grown from 
the seed or budded into sweet orange stocks. 

It was formerly called the " St. Augustine orange," because nearly all the 
groves in Florida were at St. Augustine till the Indians were extirpated, 
and also the China orange ; but latterly, so many have obtained buds from 
the celebrated Dummit grove, on the coast, it has often been called the 
"Indian River orange." And here I want to warn my readers of a trick 
resorted to of late, by some unscrupulous persons, who, taking advantage 
of the name, " Indian River orange," and its acknowledged superiority, are 



43 

allowing" strangers to suppose that all these oranges are grown on Indian 
River, and cannot be grown elsewhere. This is not true, as any one can see 
that the finer quality of oranges are grown anywhere that oranges can be 
grown, and the locality makes no difference in the quality. The soil makes 
some difference as to the early or late maturity of the fruit, but the quality 
of the variety when ripe, is the same wherever found. Thousands of 
oranges sold last winter in Jacksonville as " Indian River oranges," 
were grown in Orange County or near Tampa Bay. 

St. Augustine, at one time, resorted to the same trick, and all good fruit 
were called "St. Augustine oranges ;" great quantities of Jamaica fruit are 
sold every season in our seaport cities, and called " Florida oranges." 

When the winters are mild, as fine sweet oranges are grown in North 
Florida as anywhere else in the State, and, in fact, locality has nothing to 
do with quality. But it is true that Florida, as a whole, does produce the 
finest fruit in the world, on account of its peculiar soil and rainy climate, 
and General Sanford has shown that, at our present prices in the grove, 
they can be shipped to Europe and sold at a profit. This opens to us 
a market where our surplus can always find a ready market, if the time 
ever comes that we have more than we need at home. 

I hope that I have given an idea of what I mean by fertilizing, and I 
hope that no one will be deceived by the people who claim that they have 
land to sell that will make successful orange groves without fertilizing. 
Such land does not exist in Florida. We have land in the hummocks that 
will produce fair trees and a few crops of fruit without fertilizer, but it is a 
total failure, in a few years, beyond recuperation. 

Select high, dry " pine land," with willow-oak and black jack inter- 
spersed, a pleasant situation, above water, in a healthy section south of the 
twenty-ninth degree, well away from the coast gales and other bad feat- 
ures mentioned in these letters ; clear your land well, fence it well, mark 
out your places, make the ground rich, plant your trees well, water and care 
for them well till they start to grow, manure heavily, put on more than any 
one has ever yet applied, keep the ground frequently stirred, clear of grass 
or weeds, and in four or five years you will have a bearmg orange grove. 
Remedies for "die back," "frost protection," " scale insect," are only 
needed where the soil is not good ; they are too far north, or the trees 
are poverty stricken and starved. 

We have large, gaunt, hungry orange trees in Florida, whose owners 
are waiting from year to year for a heavy crop of fruit, and who do not 
know that they will never realize their wishes till they manure their trees. 

I will give you a sample of what high fertilizing means. Henry Schultz, 
of Berks County, Pa., bought the Hooker place, near Poinciania, Fla. On 
the place were four very large old trees, near where an old house once 
stood. The trees had grown in a door yard, and were fed in their early 
days from the slops of the house. The old house had been torn down and 
the source of manure cut off, so the trees ceased to grow and became hun- 



44 

gry and bare of fruit. Mr. Schultz thought he would try manure. He 
bought a barrel of strong fertilizer, dropped it in the square between the 
cluster of four trees, knocked the head out and scattered it broadcast, and 
turned it under. Those trees grew amazingly all that summer, and the 
next year bore fifteen barrels of oranges. This is "high farming." Mr. 
Schultz now manures all his trees highly, and has a magnificent property. 

If the owner of a hungry grove reads this, let him at once apply a barrel 
of orange tree manure, or a sack of Peruvian guano to every four of his 
trees, and if they are old enough and large enough, I will guarantee him a 
good crop the next year if kept cultivated and clean. The chances are he 
has been applying a shovelful when I recommend a barrel. Why do peo- 
ple hesitate about buying one dollar's worth of fertilizer when it will 
bring five or ten dollars' worth of fruit ? 

So much for orange growing. While I think of it, let me say a few 
words more about the " snow line " and the " frost line." 

FROST LINE. 

People who live within sight of lofty mountains, in cold climates, are 
aware that there is a snow line on the mountain side, above which snow 
never melts away entirely, and the limit of perpetual snow is plainly 
marked. However, this line is not at the same altitude every year, and 
some seasons the warmth will creep up the mountain side higher than it 
will at other times ; there are two extremes to this zone around the lofty 
peak, and it will vary a degree or two one year with another, but there is a 
line below which it never remains through the summer, and there is a line 
above which it never melts away. This illustrates the " snow line," on a 
level plain about as well as it can be done. Some years we do not have a 
particle of snow below Middle Georgia, while other cold winters it will 
reach down into North Florida, of course, lighter as it goes South, till the 
exact spot where it stops is reached, as on the mountain side. Altitude has 
the same effect that latitude has on temperature ; as you go up into the 
higher regions of the atmosphere you find it growing colder, and on the 
mountain tops we find glaciers and a climate as cold as Greenland, with 
the "arctic" vegetation. At the equator it requires a greater altitude 
to produce a certain degree of cold than it would at Mount Hood, where 
both altitude and latitude are combined to produce it. On the other hand, 
in the tropics there is a line on all lofty mountains, below which, snow 
never falls, but it will come down lower one year than another, and the 
belt between its extremes may be compared to the zone near sea level 
where snow is liable to fall during unusually cold seasons, where it is certain 
to fall every season : but there is a zone where at sea level it never falls. 

The " frost line " travels farther down the mountain side than the snow 
line, and the farther down it travels the lighter it is ; but in all warm cli- 
mates there is a line below which it is never seen, and here tropical vege- 
tation begins. 



45 

On the sides of lofty peaks in Mexico one can find the strictly tropical 
palms and bananas growing in the tierra calienta at sea level, and in a 
few hours he may pass through the climates and vegetation of all our States 
from the cocoanut palm of South Florida, to the wild red raspberry of Min- 
nesota, and further up he may reach the climate of Alaska, to find 
himself amongst glaciers. 

• On mountain sides these "snow lines" and "frost lines" are quite 
marked, and if the State of Florida was all planted in the " Australian 
Blue Gum " tree, or " Eucalyptus Globulus," and we could look down from 
some high mountain, we should see that when a mild winter came the 
trees would flourish all over Florida, when an ordinary winter came we 
would see a belt killed all along the northern part of the State ; if a sharp 
frost should come with a high wind from the north-west, we should see 
them killed down to the thirtieth parallel, and below, this would mark the 
northern limit of " Blue Gum." The time will come when people in Florida 
will understand what latitude is required for certain products, and eacn 
belt will plant what it is intended for, but now the safe guide for a stranger 
is to take no one's word for it, but go South till he finds the lime, lemon, 
guava, orange and pineapple bearing, and if he desires to find a climate 
strictly tropical in temperature, he must go till he finds the cocoanut. 

We have talked a long time about the sweet orange, and now I want to 
touch upon the other fruits of the sub-tropical belt, which in my opinion 
are of as much or more importance than the orange. 

But in all calculations made on the cultivation of any product I may 
mention hereafter, let it be distinctly understood that my estimates are 
based upon high farming and unstinted fertilization. Peter Henderson or 
any other great gardener will not. when he selects a site for gardening, 
look for " rich land ;" he will select a light, mellow, sandy loam soil, 
and at once proceed to make it rich. Such men have got down to 
the essence of agriculture, and look at the mechanicalstructure of the soil, 
and supply the chemical properties required by the crops they cultivate. 
If the soil is not light, sweet and dry, they will underdrain it at great ex- 
pense ; if too dry, they will prepare to irrigate it when necessary. They do 
not stop at an expense of from one to five hundred dollars per acre to pre- 
pare a garden for one crop. The crops we grow in South Florida are in- 
comparably more valuable than any crop grown where snow falls, without 
the aid of glass ; and why should we hesitate about fertilizing, when that 
is all required of us to grow in the open air crops that can be grown no- 
where else in our country except in hot-houses, and to grow many things 
that cannot be grown elsewhere under any artificial process ? 

In conclusion, I beg leave to submit a few testimonials from my clients, 
and to say that PART two of " Plain Talk about Florida," will 
give much very valuable information of general interest ; and will be sent 
by mail to any address on sending One Dollar to John A. Macdonald, 
Eustis, Orange Co., Florida. 



46 

This letter I value very highly, as Mr. Clifford is a very conservative and 
cautious business man, and would say nothing that he does not believe ia 
firmly : 

EusTis, Orange Co., Fla., July 12, 1883. 
To -whom it tiiay concern : 

This is to say that I have been personally acquainted with John A. Macdonald, 
Esq., since October, 1875, during which time my own dealings with him have 
amounted to nearly .$1 5,000, and I have been personally cognizant with many of his 
dealings, both with my neighbors and with strangers, and I can cheerfully certify 
that I know his transactions with all to have been very generally satisfactory, and 
that his judgment and ability to please in the selection and location qf lands for 
parties, both present and absent, have been successful to a degree that I have 
never known for any one else following the same calling, and I take pleasure in 
recommending him as being reliable and trustworthy, and diligent to his under- 
takings to all engaging his services, and, in so doing, I can confidently assert 
that I but express the general sentiment of this neighborhood, which he has 
almost entirely settled during the past eight years, and is himself a resident of. 

G. D. Clifford. 



This certificate is from a careful and well to do citizen — a lawyer — and 
one of our Presidential Electors for Florida, on the Garfield ticket. 
Ten acres of the first land he bought from me now contain the celebrated 
young grove at present owned by Mr. Arthur Esdra, of New York, and 
was sold for $10,000 : 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 13, 18S2. 

This is to certify that I have known John A. Macdonald, Esq., of Orange Co., 
Fla., for over eight years last past; that he sold me the first land I bought in 
Florida, en which I realized a good profit. He also located the Orange City 
colony, of which he was a member. In this we were successful. Land on which 
he located us then for $1.25 per acre is now worth $30 on an average. In every 
transaction had with him I made money, and he made good all he agreed to with 
me. I have not known him to wrong any person who has ever had dealings with 
him. Very respectfully, 

John E. Stillman. 



This is frcm my friend, M. J. Taylor, well known both in Florida, Wash- 
ington City, and at his old home in Southport, Conn. Col. Taylor has 
done for me much more than it has ever been in my power to do for him. 
He is a gentleman of ample means and is one of the safest men, finan- 
cially, in our State. 

EusTis, Florida, July 12, 1883. 
Dear Colonel : 

While you were in the woods last week examining government lands, I sold 
to Mr. Gableman, of Fort Madison, Iowa, a portion of my orange grove, 
together with a five acre wood lot overlooking Lake Gracie, as a site for a resi- 
dence. 

In this connection I wish to again thank you for your good advice relative to 
the purchase by me of this and other property in Florida during the past year. 



'47 

Every investment, without a single exception, made with your advice (and I have 
made no others) has proved to be far superior to my expectations. Let me name 
some of them : 

Beginning with my home place, the price for which was $6,000. I would 
state that I have received from the sale of portions of it $50 more than I paid 
for the whole place, and now have remaining 20 acres on Crooked Lake, on 
which are my house and other buildings, and 10 acres of grove, one-half of which 
shows fruit this year. The 20 acres are to-day worth $10,000. 

The Seneca Lake selection, on which I have set out 100 acres of orange trees 
for the Lake Eustis Orange Grove Company, of Washington, D. C, has proved 
to be one of the most eligible sites in the county, not only as regards soil, but 
location as well— the line of Gordon's railroad from Jacksonville to Tampa being 
surveyed within two miles of the tract. 

The selection of the " Martin " tract and grove near Tavares, at $2,500, has 
proven your good judgment, for the St. John's & Lake Eustis railway, which is 
now graded to Oxmore, will, during the present year, run trains within 20 rods 
of the grove. This property is now worth $5,000, and is rapidly appreciating 
in value. 

Mr. Gotherman, of Ohio, paid me $500 to-day for the $200 worth of govern- 
ment land which you selected for me last February, 20 miles south of here. 

The two government eighties lying north of Sorrento, and three miles west of 
the village of " Macdonald," adjoin lands held at from $10 to $25 per acre, and 
could not be bought for less than $2,000. These tracts were selected in April 
last. 

In fact, the beginning of my prosperity dates back to 1873, when I bought 
1,500 acres of land selected by you, and I unhesitatingly recommend any of my 
Washington or other friends to accept of your advice and judgment in the selec- 
tion of improved or unimproved Florida property. 

Very truly yours, 
Col. J. A. Macdonald, M. J. Taylor, Jr. 

Eustis, Florida 



This is to certify, that John A. Macdonald has located for me eight forty acre 

lots of land, and obtained in every case government titles to the same. For four 

of the above lots I have been offered two hundred per cent, ten months from date 

of purchase and have been well pleased with the others, except one tract— for 

this Mr. Macdonald has refunded to me the entry money with interest. So that 

I can say most heartily, that his business transactions with me have been not 

only honest and honorable throughout, but his business capacity and judgment 

of a high order. 

Lake Eustis, Fla., Dec. 7, 1SS2. 

Joseph Cadwallader. 

This letter is from Rev. Dr. Cadwallader, who, having heart disease, 
desired to move to a colder climate, and I at once took off his hands a tract 
bought for him, which was not as salable as the other lots at the time, but 
is now worth $5 per acre. 



48 

EUSTIS, y?//v 12, 1883. 

John A. Macdonald, Esq. 

Dear Sir : As you are about to leave home for some time, in the interest of 
Florida, I consider it my duty as well as a pleasure to give you a few lines as a 
testimonial of my regard. I came to this place about two years ago, solely upon 
your representation and advice, and I have never regretted it. Also, during the 
two years that I have lived in Orange Co., and have seen and conversed with a 
great many people whom you have located, I have never yet met with one who 
was in any way dissatisfied when he had relied upon your judgment in selecting 
land. You take with you the good will of hundreds of our citizens, who will 
testify favorably as to your honesty and fair dealing. 

Yours respectfully, 

Gi;y Hutchings, M. D. 

Dr. Hutchings is one of our most popular citizens ; is postmaster of our 
town; owns a drug store, and is a regular practising physician. He is 
well and favorably known in Toledo, Ohio Sound in all respects. 



Lake Eustis, Fla , Nov. 22, 1881. 
Mr. John A. Macdonald. 

Dear Sir : I have travelled the State of Florida from Tallahassee to Orlando 
for two seasons, and I must confess that the Lake Eustis country is the most 

beautiful I have seen in the State. 

Yours very truly, 

D. M. Gray. 

Mr. Gray is a salesman in the wholesale drug house of F. Stearns, De- 
troit, Mich., to whom I had the pleasure of showing some of the beauties 
of the lake region. 

EusTis, Orange Co., Y\.K.,July 12, 1883. 

I have been acquainted with John A. Macdonald for the past eight years ; my 
attention having been first drawn to Florida through his writings. For the past 
two years I have been intimately acquainted with him, both personally and 
through business transactions, and have ever found him the courteous gentleman, 
honest, reliable and faithful to the interests of those who confided their business 
to him, and heartily recommend him to any who may have business they wish 
attended to, especially in the State of Florida, where his almost universal knowl- 
edge of the people and country give him special advantages which few, and per- 
haps none, others possess. James A. Pine. 

Capt. J. A. Pine is now my assistant, and attends to the correspondence, 
and is well known in Gainsville, where he lived several years before moving 
to South Florida. 



J. A. Macdonald, Esq., Ocklawaha House, Nov. 21, 1881. 

Lake Eustis, Fla. 
Dear Sir : 

I want to acknowledge to you that you have made good your statement that 
the finest location for homes in Florida was "in the Lake Eustis region, in 
Oraijge County." 

After visiting all parts of the State. I am satisfied after our little ride about 



49 

the country yesterday, that for loveliness of scenery the Lake Eustis region can- 
not be beat, at least in Florida. I am so well pleased with it that I have bought 
property here, and propose to buy more at an early day. 

I am truly yours, 

J. B. Wells, 
Trav. Agt. for Mosler, Bahmann & Co., 

Cincinnati. 

Mr. Wells is originally from Rochester, N. Y., and had travelled all over 
our State, but declared this the most beautiful he had seen. 



This letter is given by Mr. E. B. Hore, who is well known amongst the 
jewelry dealers in Maiden Lane, New York, but now a resident of our town, 
and although he bought very little land through my agency, he has ex- 
pressed regret that he did not buy more. 

Eustis, Fla., July 12, 1883. 

We take pleasure in adding our appreciation of the business capacity and 
judgment of Col. J. A. Macdonald, whom we have known for about two years, 
and who located us in Eustis. 

We have yet to learn of the first discontented one that he has located, and our 
only regret is, we did not accept to a greater extent his advice to invest more 
extensively. 

We believe him to be the best authority on anything relating to Florida lands, 
and more fully posted on contemplated improvements than any one in Orange 

Co., and shall gladly confide oar business to his care. 

HoRE & Osborne, 

Builders, &c. 



The South Florida Journal, ) 
Sanford, Orange Co., Fla., Sept. 23, 1879. \ 
To whom it may concern : 

It gives us pleasure to testify that Col. Jno. A. Macdonald, manager of the 
Climate Cure Advocate, and who was a resident of this county many years, is 
more familiar with the lands and localities in Orange County than any other per- 
son. We relied entirely on his judgment, and permitted him to select lands for 
us we had not seen, and said lands have proved in every respect as he represented 
them. We believe his judgment to be the best. 

Way & OsBORN, 
Proprietors '^Journal." 

These gentlemen are well and favorably known in Orange County, and 
at their former homes in Washington, Ohio. The land bought for them ?t 
$1.25 per acre five years ago is now worth $100 per acre. 



This circular was printed for me by Hon. Columbus Drew of Jacksonville,,' 
and in the original was on a large sheet and elegant type. I give it to show 
that my experience in fruit culture dates back into the early days, before 
the City of Sanford was founded. I am not in the nursery business now. 



so 

FLORIDA NURSERIES. 

The Largest Collection of 

Tropical and Semi-Tropical Plants 

In the State. 

100,000 Sweet Orange Trees, one and two years old ; from ten to forty cents 
each. 

20,000 Gauva Trees, four varieties : $5 per hundred, or ten cents each. 

10,000 Pine Apple Plants, the Sugar Loaf variety, six months old ; 10 cents 
each, $75 per 1,000. 

1,000 Giant Fig Bananas, the best known ; $1 each. 

2,000 Plantain Bananas, a large and showy fruit; 50 cents each. 

We have on hand a great number of strictly Tropical Plants, which will be 
offered next spring : Mangoes, mamayes, tamarinds, pappayas, sappadillos, alli- 
gator pears, etc., etc. 

There is a great demand for the larger size of orange trees at present, and 
parties wishing to plant groves this winter would do well to order early. Stran- 
gers in this country ought to visit the Nurseries, or get advice from some reliable 
man who has been successful. Advice given if desired. We can furnish all 
sizes of sour orange stocks, and will plant groves by contract. 

J. A. Macdonald, 
Civil and Agricultural Engineer, 
December i, 1870. Mellonville, Florida. 



The following is a copy of certificate as Attorney and Counsellor-at- 
Law : 

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 
At a General Term of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, held in the 
City of New York, on the eighth day of October, 1878 : 
Present. — Noah Davis, Presiding Justice. 
John R Brady and \ t ,• 
Chas. R. Ingalls. \J^'i'"'- 

John A. Macdonald, having applied for admission as an Attorney and Coun- 
sellor-at-Law, at the bar of the said Court, and of the several Courts of this 
State, and it appearing that he is a citizen of the United States, that he is 
twenty-one years of age, and that he is of good moral character, and having been 
duly examined, this Court do find that he is duly qualified to enter on the duties 
of the profession. 

Therefore, it is ordered that the said John A. Macdonald be, and he is hereby 
admitted as an Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law, to practice in all the Courts of 
this State. 

In testimony whereof, I, Noah Davis, Presiding Justice of said Court, have 
hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the said Court to be hereunto affixed 
this 8th day of October, 1878. 

Noah Davis, 
Attest : Presiding Justice. 

Henry Gumbleton, 

Clerk. 



elOHN fl. GQaGDONALD, 
EUSTIS, ORANGE COUNTY, FLORIDA, 

K|,AS devoted seventeen years to the development of the United States 
^/| land in Florida. He knows the whole region better than any other 
man living. Has settled more than two thousand families on prosperous 
and happy homes. United States land, selected by him seven years ago, 
is now worth from $25 to $400 per acre. Land selected two years ago at 
$1.25 per acre is now worth from $10 to $50 per acre. He is now selecting 
Government lands equally as good, that in three to five years will be worth 
$100 per acre. Forty acres cost $60. If you want a beautiful tract of im- 
proved or unimproved land in Orange, Sumter, Polk, Hernando, Hills- 
borough or adjoining counties for a home or an investment, write him, and 
all questions will be truthfully answered. He refers to any of his settlers, 
and to leading citizens in every State and Territory in our Union, and 
in Canada. Sixty dollars invested now will be a home and a fortune in a 
few years. 

He has been a " land locator " for twenty-five years, United States timber 
agent several years, County Surveyor of Orange County eight years. United 
States Surveyor twelve years, Engineer for the Board of Internal Improve- 
ment of the State of Florida several years, private surveyor in all parts 
of Florida, and the first Northern settler in Orange County after the war. 
Best facilities in Florida for selecting property. Send for map of the " Lake 
Region." 

Send names of all your friends who might care to read about Florida, 
and of all persons of your, acquaintance afflicted with lung or bronchial 
complciints, and who could be benefited by change of climate. 

Write out all specific questions plainly, leaving space after each question 
for the answer, so that they can be filled in and the same sheet returned. 

If you want to know about a)iy part of Plorida, you can get accurate 
information. 

He can select land in any part of Florida for any purpose — timber lands 
in North Florida, fruit lands in the upper part of the Peninsula, and cocoa- 
nut lands in the extreme South. The most valuable are the fruit lands of 
the interior. 

John A. Macdonald's Address, 

UNTIL OCTOBER 20, IS 

17 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK, 

AFTER THAT DATE, 



WILL VISIT PRINCIPAL NORTHERN CITIES SOON. 



Library of Congress 
Branch Bindery, 1902 



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